ill DADD'S VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



light and liberty, confining them in a warm room, and stuffing 

 them with food. We find that, under such barbarous management, 

 there is a disproportion between the oxygen respired and the car- 

 bon taken in the form of food. The respiration which active ex- 

 ercise increases and rest diminishes are, now that the animal is 

 confined, slow and uniform. The lungs fail in eliminating car- 

 bonic acid, and hence carbon and hydrogen are driven back to the 

 livei by means of venous circulation. An excess of carbonaceous 

 material in the liver is liable to result in jaundice, which is a simple 

 functional derangement of that organ. It occurs generally in the 

 warm months, and is usually sudden in its attack. 



Among the most prominent symptoms are high-colored urine, 

 yellow tinge of the visible surfaces, languid pulse, and slow action. 

 If the liver be the seat of inflammatory action, the pulse will be 

 quick and bounding, respiration hurried, the patient feverish, and 

 pressure over the region of the liver elicits symptoms of pain. 

 If simple functional derangement exists unchecked for any length 

 of time, it leads to organic lesions and structural disease. When 

 the bile accumulates, it is very apt to thicken and produce gall- 

 stones or calculi ; if these accumulate in the gall ducts, the subject,, 

 anless relieved, soon dies. 



Diseases of the liver have hitherto been considered the bane of 

 tropical climates, but they are equally prevalent in cold and moist 

 regions. Horses and men are as frequently attacked with it in 

 northern as in southern latitudes. The celebrated sheep-breeder, 

 Bakewell, knew that early disturbance of the liver led to the ac- 

 cumulation of fat, and, in order to derange the liver, he was in 

 the habit of folding his sheep in wet pastures. Now, the English 

 agriculturists are well acquainted with the fact that water mea- 

 dows have a tendency to produce that almost incurable disease 

 termed rot. Rot originates from a diseased liver, and, in the 

 early stages of it, the animal accumulates fat very fast ; so that 

 by rotting sheep he was able to bring fat ones early to market, and 

 thus steal a march on his more conscientious neighbors. This 

 state of the liver termed rot is associated with the existence 

 of parasites termed distoma hepatieum, commonly denominated 

 flukes, and these parasites are considered the cause of rot, when, 

 in fact, they are the results of deranged functions of the liver. 

 The rot, therefore, is not local. It can be produced in any coun- 

 try by exposing animals to the debilitating effects of moisture and 



