444 DISEASES OE THE LIVER AND SPLEEN. 



set, of more avail in chronic diseases in general than large 

 evacuations. Purgation, briskly excited and kept up, is more 

 likely to prove beneficial during the inflammatory stage than 

 any thing I know of; but on no account during inflamma- 

 tion is calomel to be administered : the liver is already iu a 

 state of over-excitement ; and, if we believe that mercury 

 exerts any action upon the organ, surely its use in this con- 

 dition of the gland must be clearly counter-indicated. 

 Where we suspect an enlarged, or a tuberculous, or scirrhous 

 condition of the gland, we have some prospect of doing good 

 by having recourse to the exhibition of iodine, both in the 

 form of ball and of ointment. Blisters and setons may also 

 be brought to our aid, the same as if the case were one of 

 acute hepatitis. 



JAUNDICE. 



The remarkable yellowness of the skin, eyes, and mouth, 

 in this disorder, obtained for it among the farriers of old the 

 name oi yellows ; by whom — owing apparently to their con- 

 founding with it aff'ections of the lungs — ^jaundice was 

 imagined to be of very common occurrence. In truth, 

 however, it is comparatively but a rare disease. And when 

 present, is, in the generality of cases, if not in all, sympto- 

 matic of hepatitis, either of the acute or chronic character. 

 Independently of the consideration of the general absence of 

 other causes for jaundice, this is an opinion we are naturally 

 led to adopt from fever being a concomitant of the disorder, 

 as well as from the circumstance of its yielding to copious 

 evacuations, more particularly to bleeding and purging. 



The Symptoms, then, of jaundice will be those of hepatitis. 

 Those especially characteristic are, yellowness of the eyes, 

 nose, mouth, and skin, wherever it can be perceived, accom- 

 panied with saff'ron-coloured urine and serum of the blood, 

 and with dung either of the same bilious tinge, or else 

 altogether devoid of bile — clay-coloured. 



Pathology. — I repeat, I believe jaundice in horses com- 

 monly to result from hepatitis : I do not mean, however, in 



