136 



that is being continually stuffed on sweet and fancy foods, which 

 are apt to set up various derangements and diseases of the liver, such 

 as congestion, enlargement, hardening, scirrhous, Sec, and which creep 

 on very insiduously, being frequently accompanied with asthma and 

 shortness of breath. The Symptoms of the different forms of liver 

 complication in the dog are not well defined. The first symptom, 

 generally, to be noticed is that the skin and coat begin to look dry and 

 harsh, the mouth and the tongue lose their bright rose colour, the 

 breath becomes foetid, and the eye is dull and sleepy looking, while 

 the teeth are dirty. The appetite, however, is fair, yet the dog loses 

 flesh, and the belly becomes enlarged and hard, while there is nearly 

 always present a peculiar barking, long, husky cough. Treatment : 

 First all fancy foods should be stopped, and a plain diet given, such 

 as dog biscuit steeped in soup, feeding twice in twenty-four hours, 

 and giving gentle walking exercise. For medicine mix one drachm 

 each of blue pill, powdered aloes, and powdered rhubarb, and make 

 into twelve pills, and give one every third or fourth day. This dose 

 is for an ordinary-sized collie dog ; other doses should be regulated 

 according to age, breed and size of dog. 



322. Pancreas. — I have never, as yet, met with any disease of this 

 organ, either in post-mortems, or otherwise, except in tubercular 

 disease. 



323. The Spleen, Milt, or Cat-Collop, (Pla/e XVIII. , E.J, is 

 situated on the left side of the larger curvature of the stomach. It has 

 a bluish-grey, mottled appearance (in the pig, slightly red), shaped like 

 a sole, and is very soft and elastic. It is ductless, having no channel 

 for the removal of its products, except by means of the blood-vessels. 

 Its proper functions are not exactly known, though several are 

 ascribed to it. Still, it can be done without, as cases are on record 

 where the spleen has been successfully removed from dog and man, 

 without causing death, or, indeed, much inconvenience, so long as the 

 diet was properly attended to. My opinion is, that it acts as a reservoir 

 for the old, worn-out red corpuscles, which have done their duty in the 

 blood. These, rushing to the spleen, during digestion, are broken 



