538 DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 



lungs, pleurae, and bronchial tubes are more prone to attack in 

 the colder climate of Great Britain. 



I have found that acute attacks of liver disease in India, are 

 comiDarativelj frequent in jDlaces where tliere is a marked fall, at 

 certain seasons of the year, in the temperature of the air at night; 

 and that chronic disease of that organ is peculiarly rife in hot, damp 

 climates like that of Bengal. Horses thrive well, under proper man- 

 agement, in hot climates so long as the atmosphere is dry j but the 

 presence of an excess of moisture in it is prejudicial to the well- 

 being of these animals. In fact, in many hot, damp climates, it is 

 practically impossible to breed and rear horses capable of doing 

 ordinary work. 



Australian and English imported horses, in India, are much more 

 liable to these affections than are Arabs and indigenous animals. 



The practice, in India, of bathing in cold, instead of in hot water, 

 is a fruitful source of liver disease among men; and acts in the 

 same baneful manner as that of depriving horses of their clothing 

 during cold nights which follow hot days. 



SYMPTOMS. — ^Yellowness of the gums and of the lining mem- 

 brane of the eyelids ; loss of condition; clay colour and offensive 

 smell of the dung, which is sometimes mixed with coffee-coloured 

 patches ; sour smell from the mouth ; loss of appetite ; constipa- 

 tion ; and urine high coloured on account of the colouring matter 

 of the bile beino; excreted alonof with it. There is dulness and de- 

 pression, accompanied at first by some fever, which may be per- 

 ceived from the increased frequency of the pulse and rise in the 

 internal temperature of the body. The horse may evince, on pres- 

 sure over the region of his liver (the right side), the presence of 

 pain. In some few cases, there is lameness of the off fore leg. 



NATURE OF THE DISEASE.— The liver is a large gland, which weighs, 

 ill the average adult horse, about 11 lbs. Besides the arteries that go to it for 

 its own nutrition, as well as their corresponding veins, the liver receives a 

 large supply of blood from the portal vein, into which is poured the greater 

 ])art of the blood that is received from the internal organs of digestion on its 

 way back to the heart. The liver, therefore, has two systems of circulation ; 

 namely, one nutritive ; the other functional. Speaking in general terms, 

 the chief functions of the liver are: (1) To form glycogen from the 

 saccharine and nitrogenous matters which are absorbed into the blood from 

 the food. Glycogen is stored in the cells . of the liver, from which 

 it is removed in the form of grape sugar into the general circulation ; 

 partly for supplying the system with force (for movement and the maintenance 

 of the internal heat), in being converted into carbonic acid and water hj its 

 union with the inspired oxygen, which combines with its carbon ; partly for 

 the nourishment of the tissues ; and probably, for the formation of"^ fat. 



(2) To break up worn-out red blood corpuscles, which yield bile pigment and 

 urea, and which, as Kiihne has shown, are dissolved by the bile acids. 



(3) To convert albuminous matters (both waste and nutritive) in the blood, 

 and also glycogen, into products that can easily be eliminated from the 



