182 DISEASES OF THE HOESE. 



" One post-mortem examination presented the liver about three 

 times its natural size, and consisting of a mass of coagulated 

 blood. 



" Decayed structure is a variety of diseased liver particularly- 

 deserving attention, not on account of its immediate destructive- 

 ness to the animal economy, but by reason of its frequent 

 occurrence. It is too often the forerunner of dangerous com- 

 plaints of other organs, and it is a sad obstacle to their cure. 

 In inflammation of the lungs it often checks the practitioner in 

 the decisive treatment which that disease requires ; for after tlie 

 animal has been copiously bled, and there is reason to hope that 

 he is doing well, the pulse becomes quickened, and feeble, and 

 fluttering, the breathing is hurried, general and extreme ex- 

 liaustion ensues, and the patient dies. In the same disease, also, 

 a previous altered state of the liver causes violent purging to 

 follow from the administration of the smallest doses of nauseating 

 cathartics, and which speedily terminates in the death of the 

 animal.* I have attributed some obstinate cases of ophthalmia, 

 and particularly some cuticular diseases, to this affection of 

 the liver ; for after having failed in the more useful methods 

 of cure, I have succeeded on turning my attention to this 

 viscus. 



" This form of the disease, like the disordered liver of the 

 drunken man, is occasioned by a continuance of highly stimu- 

 lating food (only it is a solid instead of a fluid which is here the 

 deleterious agent) ; by irregular exercise, and a sudden transition 

 from a cool and healthy stable to one that is hot, close, and 

 fffitid ; hence it is that hunters and carriage horses, and almost 

 every where waggon horses, are so subject to it. 



" At first there are few or very obscure indications of internal 

 disease ; but there is affection of the eyes, loss of appetite, 

 surfeit, hidebound, inability to maintain long and violent ex- 

 ertion, faintness and the frequent evacuation of pultaceous 



* Some time since a striking proof of this occurred under tlae observation 

 of the Editor. A horse received some slight injury, for which he had a mild 

 dose of physic; no attention was called or directed to any internal disease. 

 The following day the physic operated severely. The third day the animal 

 appeared very ill; pulse ninety, small and weak; extremities cold; the mem- 

 brane of the eyelids and the nostrils of a deep yellow colour ; purging, but in 

 no acute pain. The fourth day the horse died; and on opening the body the 

 liver was found of a yellow brown colour, and its texture readily bi-oken down ; 

 the windpipe and lungs showed appearances of disease, but of a more recent 

 character ; the bowels slightly inflamed. In this case, though the liver must 

 have been diseased for some time, yet the horse fed well and carried plenty 

 of flesh. The dose of physic, though mild, yet served to light up diseased 

 action, and assist in producing a fatal result. The case serves to show under 

 what deceptive appearances this disease of the liver may exist, and how es- 

 sential it is, when discovered or suspected, to avoid purgation as well as 

 bloodletting. 



