HEPATITIS. 437 



been occasionally seen, as though connected with the hepatic 

 nervous system. 



The Causes of hepatitis are not in all cases demonstrable. 

 We may probably set forth plethora and excessive stimulation 

 of system as the two most general ones : over- feeding and 

 over-exertion, particularly during hot weather; even simple 

 exposure to heat in a climate where the sun has more power 

 than in our own, may, likely enough, in the course of time, 

 produce the disease. It has been remarked that stall-fed 

 oxen become the occasional subjects of hepatic disease, which 

 is strikingly manifested after death by a yellowness of the 

 fat of the carcass : in this instance, excess of aliment, with 

 the want of exercise, would appear to be the cause. In 

 like manner, horses who have been little or not at all exer- 

 cised, and are kept fed up, are liable to such attacks. In con- 

 sonance with all this, comes the observation of Mr. Brown, 

 V.S., Melton Mowbray, " that hunters who are kept in the 

 stable during the summer months are frequently attacked 

 with hepatitis, which," he adds, " may probably arise from 

 their being too liberally fed, and a want of sufficient exer- 

 cise.-'^ To these causes may be added, injuries of the right 

 side, or of the liver itself ; gall-stones ; Avorms in the biliary 

 passages; inflammation of parts connected with or in the 

 immediate vicinity of the liver, &c. 



The Termination of hepatitis, under ordinary circum- 

 stances is, generally speaking, favorable; the disease being 

 one that, though tardily, pretty surely gives way to timely 

 bleeding and purging, two remedies which are of pretty uni- 

 versal adoption among farriers and grooms, for '^ yellows.'' 

 The greatest danger to be apprehended, particularly in cases 

 where these evacuations are delayed, is bursting of the liver 

 from over distension : the gland being at the instant gorged, 

 not with blood alone, but with bile also; though this danger 

 will much depend on the condition of the liver, sound or 

 unsound, at the time of the inflammatory attack. Even the 

 brain is far from being out of danger, so long as the liver 

 continues in a state of congestion : adding one more cogent 

 reason for the immediate employment of evacuants. Judging 



