LIVER. 



121 



Its function is the secretion of bile — a yellow alkaline or 

 soapy fluid. 



Without the liver, digestion and animal heat cannot be 

 maintained, and the waste or effete matter cannot be re- 

 moved from the blood. So, therefore, when the liver is 

 disturbed, there can be no health in the rest of the 

 system. 



Liver, Inflammation of the. — The horse is rarely 

 the subject of inflammation of this organ in an acute, 

 but more commonly in a chronic form: it is often met 

 with from the fact of many horses being highly fed, and 

 having nothing to do. 



Symptoms. — The affected part is very obtuse. But we 

 have a very striking analogy of this disease in man and 

 the horse, which materially assists in forming a correct 

 opinion as to the disease. Pain and lameness in the 

 right shoulder are characteristic of liver disease, whether 

 in man or horse, and have been often mistaken and 

 treated as for the disease itself. Not less so is the pecu- 

 liar yellowness of the mei^ibranes of the eyes, nose, and 

 mouth, constituting a disease called the yellows of the 

 old horse doctors. 



Treatment. — Give powdered aloes, four drachms; 

 powdered ginger root, two drachms; podophyllin, one 

 drachm. Mix, and make into a paste with molasses, 

 and form a bolus, or crumble the mass in a little thin 

 gruel, and drench the horse with it. Feed the horse 

 with green and soft feed to keep his bowels open. 



These measures being neglected, suppuration or an ab- 

 scess will be formed, and break into the bowels, or be- 

 come absorbed and produce glanders, which I believe to 

 be a prolific cause of this disease, preceded by ill health 



