INFLAMMATION OF THE INTESTINES. 137 



Bilious inflammation of the bowels forms the fourth kind of 

 intestinal inflammation ; originating, as I suspect, in some affec- 

 tion of the liver, which alters its secreting qualities, and makes 

 it, instead of engendering a healthy bile, secrete one of a black 

 noxious kind, which, as soon as it passes into the bowels, irritates 

 and inflames them most highly. This species of enteritis may be 

 distinguished from the other kinds, by the early vomiting of a black 

 or yellow foetid matter, and likewise by the bilious evacuations. 

 Poisonous substances will, however, sometimes produce similar 

 appearances in the stools ; caution is therefore requisite in deciding 

 between the two, as the treatment for the one and that for the other 

 (see Poisons J should be somewhat difierent. In the inflamma- 

 tions arising from mineral poisons, the vomitings are incessant, 

 and usually frothy and streaked with blood ; the mouth swells, and 

 emits an ofi^ensive odour ; and the stools are more bloody and less 

 tinged with dark bile. This inflammation may be distinguished 

 from the bilious by the thirst, which is insatiable under the action 

 of poison. 



Bilious inflammation is not a very untractable complaint when 

 judiciously managed. When the purgings are already considerable, 

 nothing stronger than castor oil, with some opium, should be 

 given ; but this should never be neglected : if even the evacuations 

 are frequent, profuse, and bloody, a mild dose, with forty or fifty 

 drops of laudanum, is proper at first. When the evacuations by 

 the bowels are very trifling, a mild mercurial purge should not be 

 neglected, which I have sometimes found of the greatest service ; 



Submuriate of qucksilver (calomel) 12 grains 



Aloes 3 drachms 



Opium 1 grain. 



Make into four, six, or eight balls, according to the size of the 

 dog, and give one every four or five hours till relief is obtained. 

 It will be prudent to give clysters of mutton broth, and also to 

 force some down the throat : and when the sickness is very obsti- 



