JAUNDICE. 211 



often connected with, or produced by, distemper, or a dull inflammatory 

 disease of the liver, and it is generally accompanied by pustular eruption 

 on the belly. The skin is usually tinged of a yellow hue, and the urine 

 is almost invariably impregnated with bile. The suffusion which takes 

 place is recognised among sportsmen by the term " yellows." The re- 

 medy should be some mercurial, with gentian and aloes given twice in the 

 day, and mercurial ointment well rubbed in once in the day. If this 

 treatment is steadily pursued, and a slight soreness induced in the mouth, 

 the treatment will usually be successful. Mr. Elaine observes, " A mo- 

 derate soreness of the mouth is to be encouraged and kept up. I have 

 never succeeded in removing the complaint without it." . 



JAUNDICE. 



M. W. Leblanc, of Paris, has given an interesting account of the causes 

 and treatment of jaundice in the dog. 



The prevailing symptom of this disease in the dog is a yellow dis- 

 coloration of the skin and the mucous membranes of greater or less 

 intensity. It generally announces the existence of very serious disease, 

 as inflammation of the liver and its excretory ducts, or of the gall-bladder, 

 or the stomach, or small intestines, or contraction or obliteration of the 

 excretory ducts of the liver, in consequence of inflammation of these 

 vessels, or the presence of concrete substances formed from the bile. The 

 dogs in which he found the most decided traces of this disease laboured 

 under diarrhoea, with stools of a reddish brown or black colour for one, 

 two, or three days. 



The causes of jaundice are chiefly over fatigue (thus, greyhounds are 

 more subject to it than pointers), immersions in water, fighting, emetics 

 or purgatives administered in over-doses, the repeated use of poisonous 

 substances not sufficiently strong at once to destroy the animal, the swal- 

 lowing of great quantities of indigestible food, and contusions of the 

 abdominal viscera, especially about the region of the liver. The most 

 serious, if not the most common cause, is cold after violent and long- 

 continued exercise ; and especially when the owners of dogs, seeing them 

 refuse their food after a long chace, give them powerful purgatives or 

 emetics. 



The treatment should have strict relation to the real or supposed cause 

 of jaundice, and its most evident concomitant circumstances. Some of 

 these symptoms are constant and others variable. Among the first, what- 

 ever be the cause of the disease, we reckon acceleration of the pulse ; fever, 

 with paroxysms of occasional intensity ; and a yellow or reddish-yellow 

 discoloration of the urine. Among the second are constipation, diarrhoea, 

 the absence or increase of colour in the faecal matter, whether solid or 

 fluid. When they are solid, they are usually void of much colour; when, 

 on the contrary, there is diarrhoea, the faeces are generally mingled with 

 blood more or less changed. Sometimes the dejections are nearly black, 

 mixed with mucus. It is not unusual for a chest affection to be compli- 

 cated with the lesions of the digestive organs, which are the cause of 

 jaundice. 



With these leading symptoms there are often others connected that are 

 common to many diseases ; such as dryness and heat of the mouth, a fetid 

 smell, a staggering gait, roughness of the hair, and particularly of that of 



p 2 



