CATTLE. 



allay the violent constriction of the duct. From the knowledge that 

 bihary concretions dissolve in a solution of potash, considerable quan- 

 tities of nitrate and acetate of potash have been given, but with 

 doubtful success. Ether, hydrochlofate of ammonia, potash, and 

 soda, have also been fruitlessly administered for the same purpose. 



Anothsr mechanical cause of jaundice may be the obstruction 

 formed by the fasciola or Jluke-ivorm. This singular parasite, resem- 

 bling in form a little sole, and of the natural history of which, or of 

 the changes that it has undergone, or may undergo, nothing is known, 

 is found 'in the hvers of cattle, and especially of those that are bred 

 in low and marshy situations. They accompany almost every chronic 

 disease of the liver, and often exist in the healthy animal. They 

 inhabit the ducts into which the bile is poured from the smaller 

 vessels of the liver — they are swimming in the bile, and said to be 

 generally found working their way against the course of that fluid. 



There is no case on record in which it has been proved by exami- 

 nation after death that the fluke- worm has mechanically obstructed 

 the passage of the bile, and thus caused both the yellowness and the 

 spasm, yet it can easily be imagined that this Avill sometimes occur. 

 There. are no peculiar symptoms to indicate the existence of these 

 worms, for they have never been voided from the mouth or the 

 anus : — to the first, there would be a mechanical impediment from 

 the construction of both the low^er and upper orifices of the stomach ; 

 and the digestive process going on through the w^hole of the intesti- 

 nal canal would render the latter improbable, if not impossible. 

 Their presence could only be guessed at from the nature of the pas- 

 ture, or from their having been found in other beasts of the same 

 herd. 



The same means would be adopted as in supposed obstruction by 

 a calculus, but with this probable difference, that the obstruction 

 would be more easily and quickly removed. 



Of the other species of jaundice in which the attack is more 

 gradual, and apparently unconnected with pain, and in which the 

 symptoms are weakness, listlessness, cedematous swellings, high- 

 colored urine, hardened excrement, declining condition, and occa- 

 sional death, anatomical observation has discovered various causes. 

 The state of the liver itself will sometimes account for every symp- 

 tom. It may labor under chronic inflammation, without disorganiza- 

 tion, and the secretion of bile will be considerably increased, and 

 produced more rapidly than the ducts can carry it off, or than it 

 can be disposed of in the process of digestion, and it w^ould lurk in 

 the intestines, and be taken up by the absorbents and carried into 

 the circulation. At other times the diseased state of the liver pre- 

 vents the escape of the bile, whether in its natural^^or even diminished 

 quantity ; thus, general enlaigement of the substance of the liver 

 AY ill press upon and partially close the biliary ducts — tubercles, ot 



