JAUNDICE. 10] 



No. 2. 



Vof< 



Oil of turpentine, 



Hard Soap, ^ of each 1 ounce. 



Ginger, powdered. 



Mix with flour and mucilage to form three balls; and give one on each of 

 Ihree successive nights. 



THE JAUNDICE, OR YELLOWS. 



Cause. — Inflammation of the liver, or any other obstruction of this organ, 

 which, preventing the escape of the bile into the duodoenum, or smallest gut, 

 through the gall duct, by reason of this duct being inflamed, or choked up with 

 the thickened bile, whereby it is sent again into circulation, and thus pervades 

 ihe whole system. When the inflammation is very great, the disorder quick- 

 ly carries off the patient; the inference therefore is, that poor animals alone 

 acquire the yellowness which gives name to this disorder, though it must be 

 allowed that the same effect may be produced by over-feeding and constipa- 

 tion, by swallowing hard substances, or otherwise offending the said gut, or 

 the pylorus orifice of the stomach, as described at })ages 44, 45. Its situatitin 

 may also be seen depicted in the plate of a skeleton at the intersecticn of K 

 26. At that place 1 did not choose to speak of negatives, and therefore omit- 

 ted to notice the fact, that the bile or gall secreted in the liver of this animal 

 proceeds at once, as soon as it is formed, into the gut, without being detained 

 in a sac, or gall bladder, as is the case with all other animals, except deer ; so 

 that, upon any revulsion or hindrance to its free entry to the bowels, the gall 

 must at once return to the numerous cavities that pervade the whole liver, and 

 its re-absorption by the blood is no longer problematical. 



Symploms. — A dusky yellowness of the eyes, bars of the mouth, and tongue. 

 The dung scanty and pale, generally hard, and covered with slime; but in 

 some few cases the horse scours; that is, whenslight inflammation of the bow- 

 els also attacks an ill-conditioned horse. The pulse is that of low fever, and 

 the same kind of drooping inactivity, with loss of appetite, noticed under that 

 head at page 64 ; differing from it only in respect to the seat of disorder, the 

 low fever being general, or of the whole system, jaundice of the circulation 

 only. Sometimes, however, yellowness comes on without the other symptoms, 

 after an inflammatory fever; an occurrence that can not fail to be foreknown. 

 Genuine jaundice may further be discriminated by the yellow lips, yellow 

 saliva, and dark urine. From this latter appearance we may draw these curi- 

 ous inferences — viz. that the colouring of the bile which has ceased to impart 

 Its property to the dung, having gone with the blood to the kidneys, there 

 leaves its darkest or more earthly particles — the lighter or brighter ascending to 

 the heart, and passing through the vascular system, there imparts its yellow- 

 ness. By this providency of nature we see how it is that malevolent particles 

 in the blood are cleansed at the kidneys, and pass off by urine. Thus it \% 

 that grease and other tumours are cured by judiciously stimulating the kid- 

 neys. The urine voided, as above described, which is ever done with evident 

 pain and difliculty, leaves on the ground an appearance rf blood. 



Cure. — Young horses and fat ones, are easily cured: they have indulged 

 too freely in good living, on hard meat, and require no more treatment than a 

 good physicking. Give the purgative ball (page 63), or the alterative l^all, 

 No. 1, prescribed in page 100 Give bran mashes, green food, and succuU ata, 

 accordmg to the season. Bleeding is seldom necessary, or proper, whicl ?h» 

 •tate of the pulse will show. 



