HYPERTROPHY OF THE SPLEEN. 45 3 



The horse, the subject of it, becomes heavy, lazy, disinclined 

 to work, indifferent, listless; walks unsteadily; with head 

 hanging down ; ears lopping ; eyes sparkling, inflamed, irri- 

 table, tearful ; nasal membrane pallid and dry ; expired air 

 cold; mouth likewise cold and dry ; tongue furred ; also dis- 

 coloured, as well as the gums and palate. The respiration 

 is at one time accelerated, at another slow ; seldom a cough 

 is heard^ and that is dry and feeble ; the pulse is quickened, 

 oppressed, irregular ; the belly is tucked up, tense, and hard; 

 the dung dry and dark-coloured, or else soft and ill-digested ; 

 coat rough and pen-feathered. These precursory symptoms 

 endure two or three days, or only as many hours, the animal 

 eating and drinking well all the time ; then comes on fever, 

 a cold shivering fit succeeded by a hot fit, together with loss 

 of appetite. In some one or other part of the body, soft 

 swellings make their appearance, acquiring considerable 

 volume in the course of a few hours, and emitting, when 

 opened, a yellow serous fluid, mingled with black blood. 

 They do not suppurate, but run on to mortification. And 

 now the animaFs strength fails him ; he with difficulty sustains 

 himself standing ; his body swells ; and a tranquil death, 

 rarely attended by hsemorrhage, puts an end to his suflerings.^^ 

 I must confess I feel myself but little informed by this 

 relation of symptoms. It is, to my mind, an account which 

 rather tends to show that splenitis is a subject on which the 

 French veterinarians are as much abroad as ourselves. The 

 morbid change to which ]j08t 'mortem examinations would 

 lead us to believe the spleen to be most disposed, is hyper- 

 trophy or enlargement. 



HYPERTROPHY OF THE SPLEEN. 



In several instances I have found the organ hypertrophied; 

 in some, very considerably augmented in volume and weight, 

 and yet exhibiting no appearance of disorganization. In one 

 horse I opened, the gland weighed fourteen pounds two 

 ounces ; making eleven pounds in addition to its ordinary 

 eight. It has been found even larger than this. 



