320 CATTLE. 



obtained is a lesson of wisdom ; a caution to adopt a more equable 

 and less forcing system of feeding, and the avoidance of all those 

 causes of general inflammation in which the weakest orsran suffers 

 most, and by its disorganization, causes, or, at all events, hastens, 

 death. 



Homoeopathic treatment. — At the onset, aconitum should be pre- 

 scribed in repeated doses, which often suffices to arrest the disease. 

 If this result be not attained, and the brown color of the tongue 

 increases, we are to have recourse to arsenicum. If nervous symp- 

 toms are observed, the animal making deep inspirations, during which 

 it shakes the entire body, hryonia is to be employed alternately with 

 aconitiun. Nux vomica, which is also to be alternated with aconitum, 

 is indicated when the splenic region is very painful to the touch, and 

 the animal frequently looks towards it. Laurocerasus has proved 

 useful in a very obstinate case, where the pulse was small, the eye 

 fixed, the head directed upward, and the animal insensible, with the 

 exception of some convulsive movements, when the affected part was 

 touched. 



THE LIVER. 



This organ is situated on the right side of the abdomeia, between 

 the manyplus and the diaphragm. It is principally supported by a 

 duplicature of peritoneum extending from the spine ; and is confined 

 in its situatiori" by other ligaments, or similar peritoneal duplicature 

 connecting its separate lobes or divisions with the diaphragm. It is 

 divided into two lobes of unequal size. The right lobe is the larger ; 

 the smaller one is comparatively diminutiv^e. 



The blood from the other contents of the abdomen, instead of 

 flowing directly to the heart, passes through the liver. It enters by 

 two large vessels, and is spread through every part of the liver by 

 means of the almost innumerable branches into which these vessels 

 divide. As it passes through the liver, a fluid is secreted from it, 

 called the bile, probably a kind of excrement, the continuance of 

 which in the blood would be injurious, but which, at the same time, 

 answers a peculiar purpose in the process of digestion. 



The bile thus secreted flows into the intestines, and enters the 

 duodenum thtough an orifice, the situation of which is marked out 

 by A, p. 291. It flows into the intestines as fast as it is secreted or 

 separated from the blood ; a portion of it, probably a comparatively 

 small portion, however, is received into a reservoir, the c/all-bladder, 

 where it is retained until needed for the purpose of digestion. While 

 the ox is grazing or asleep, there is no necessity for the whole of the 

 bile to run on into the intestines, but a part of it accumulates in the 

 gall-bladder. While it is retained there, it undergoes some change ; 

 part of the water which it contains is absorbed, and the residue 

 becomes thickened, and more efi"ectiTe in its operation ; and when the 



