546 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OP THE OX. 



disorders of this organ than is the horse. Indeed, it is not an 

 uncommon occurrence for sheep to be afflicted with inflammation 

 of the liver, and also for that disease to be attended with a fatal 

 issue in the case of those animals. When they are thus afflicted, 

 the sheep hang their heads down, look dispirited, partly refuse 

 food, heave at the flanks, manifest unwillingness to move, and 

 are constipated. They may display febrile symptoms, yellowness 

 of the skin and of the eye, tenderness when pressed upon the 

 right side, and lameness of the right fore-leg. This disease 

 usually arises from excess of food, which leads to engorgement 

 of the liver, which organ after death is found to be friable and 

 broken down in texture. The remedial measures which may be 

 taken consist in bleeding, in the administration of Epsom salts, 

 and in the supplying of a spare diet. 



In dogs the disease is usually very severe, and by no means 

 readily amenable to treatment. In horses, too, great care and very 

 good management are essential to success, though the disease is 

 not very frequent among them. When it does occur in horses, the 

 probability is that there is a general disturbance in the secretory 

 functions, or a stoppage in the bile-ducts. The reader will 

 remember that horses have no gall-bladder. Jaundice may be 

 brought on by excessive feeding, or a want of exercise, especially 

 in hot weather, or it may result from a sudden change of tem- 

 perature, or an abrupt alteration of the food-supply, or from 

 exposure. 



Any cause which interferes with the secretion of bile, such, for 

 instance, as the blocking up of the biliary duct owing to the 

 presence of gall-stones or of thick and inspissated bile, to 

 mechanical pressure on the duct or contraction of it, may bring 

 on jaundice. The bile, being thus confined, is re-absorbed into 

 the blood, which imparts a yellow tinge to all the tissues. The 

 disease is very easily recognised. The skin and the mucous 

 membranes present a yellowish or brownish hue ; but we must 

 not forget that a yellowness of the skin may also result from 

 certain kinds of food, and, indeed, may show itself more or less 

 normally in some of the best breeds of oxen. In inflammation 

 of the liver the abdomen may be seen to be swollen, and if 

 pressure is applied, great pain is thereby occasioned, the animal 

 flinching, moaning, and grinding the teeth. The secretion of 

 bile being greatly interfered with, the bowels are constipated, 



