132 



covers the outside of the bowels. Injuries — the results of foaling, 

 calving, lambing, or castrating, and wounds penetrating the abdominal 

 cavity — are the principal causes of peritonitis, while, at times, it occurs 

 without any appreciable cause whatever. This disease steals on so 

 insidiously that the affected animal is generally at death's door before 

 much notice is taken of it : this is especially noticeable in the horse, 

 which generally dies in a few hours after being noticed. But the cow 

 may linger on for a few days, having a dull anxious look, with eyes red 

 and suffused, hurried breathing (which is mainly done by the front 

 ribs), moaning and grinding of the teeth, trembling of the limbs, and 

 deathly coldness pervades the whole body. The animal, as it were, 

 bleeds to death, owing to the watery portions of the blood oozing 

 through the walls of the blood vessels into the abdominal cavity, 

 which, on post-mortem examination, is found to contain a large quantity 

 of straw-coloured fluid. When the disease is discovered, hypodermic 

 injections of morphia should be given, and cloths, wrung out of hot 

 water, rolled round the body, covering these again with dry rugs and 

 water-proof sheeting (see par. 250). 



316. Dropsy, or Ascites, i.e., dropsy of the belly, may arise from 

 Peritonitis ; from disease of the liver and blood-vessels ; from Tubercle, 

 and other causes. It is not of common occurrence. The chief 

 symptoms seen are enlargement of the belly, with swelling of the 

 limbs. Good nutritious food, with iron tonics and diuretics, should be 

 resorted to (see Appendix), while, in some cases, it is necessary to 

 " tap" the animal. 



317. The Liver (Plate XVIII., B.), is a large, reddish-brown, 

 glandular body, situated between the stomach and diaphragm, and 

 held in its position by ligaments. It possesses four lobes in the horse, 

 and two distinct lobes in the cow, and is covered by a coating of 

 peritoneum, called " Glissons Capsule.'' The substance consists of 

 small lobules, made up of cells, arranged like a cartwheel, between 

 which the capillaries run. The cells take out from the blood certain 

 materials for the formation of bile. The blood-vessels of the liver 



