INFLAMMATION OF TH^ LIVER. 821 



animal begins to ruminate, and portions of food pass through the 

 fourth and true stomach into the duodenum, not only is the flow of 

 bile into the gall-bladder stopped, but, either by some mechanical 

 pressure on that vessel which no one has yet explained, or, more 

 probably, by the sympathy which exists among all the organs of 

 digestion, and the influence of the gieat organic nerve causino- the 

 (probably) muscular coat of the vessel to contract, the bile flows out 

 of its resorvoir, and proceeds to its ultimate destination, along with 

 the portion which continues to run directly from the liver into the 

 intestine, through the medium of the hepatic duct. This pear-shaped 

 reser^^oir, the gall-bladder, is placed in a depression in the posterior 

 face of the liver, and adheres to it by means of a delicate cellular 

 texture. The construction of this vessel deserves attention. It has 

 the same external peritoneal coat with the viscera generally ; beneath 

 is a thicker coat, evidently composed of cellular substance, in which 

 no muscular fibres have ye* been demonstratively traced, but in which 

 they may be well conceivea *o exist, and in which, doubtless, they do 

 exist, in order to enable the gall-bladder to contract and expel its 

 contents. The inner coat is a very singular one. It has not precisely 

 the honeycomb cells of the reticulum in miniature, but it is divided 

 into numerous cells of very irregular and different shapes, in the base 

 of which, as in the cells of tiie reticulum, are minute follicular glands 

 that secrete a mucous fluid to defend the internal surface of the gall- 

 bladder from the acrimony of the bile which it contains. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. 



Cattle, and especially those that are stall-fed, are subject to inflam- 

 mation of the liver. This appears evident enough on examination 

 after death, but the symptoms during life are exceedingly obscure, 

 and not to be depended upon. An almost invariable one, however, 

 is yellowness of the eyes and skin ; but this accompanies, or is the 

 chief c'haracteristic of, obstruction of the biliary duct, and possibly 

 exists without the slightest inflammation of the substance of the liver. 

 It should also be remembered that there is scarcely any acute disease 

 to which cattle are subject, in which the liver does not sympathize. 

 - Bile is secreted in great abundance in a hea^.thy state of the animal, 

 and its secretion is very much increased under almost every intestinal 

 disease, on account of the sympathy which exists between the Hver 

 and the other organs of digestion. The feeding too much on oil-cake 

 will produce in most cattle a yellowness of the skin during life, and 

 a yellow tinge of the fat and the envelopes of the muscles after death. 



In addition to the common symptoms of fever, (quickness of the 



pulse, heaving, dryness of the muzzle, heat of the mouth and root of 



the horn, listless or suspended rumination,) those that would lead to 



the suspicion of inflammation of the liver would be, lying continually 



14* 



