216 HEPATITIS. 



iron may be given in food when all severe symptoms have 

 subsided, but should be continued in drachm doses only two 

 or three days. 



The disease is very refractory, and as the paroxysms 

 increase in frequency and severity, the animal's life is in 

 imminent danger. 



HEPATITIS. 



Roll very justly remarks, in his able work on Pathology, 

 that this is a most rare disease affecting our domestic ani- 

 mals, and the cases that are diagnosed as hepatitis should in 

 all probability be regarded as simple hyperaemia or conges- 

 tion of the liver indeed, the disease that we have last con- 

 sidered. The same author remarks that he has hitherto 

 only seen a few instances of hepatitis in the horse. The in- 

 flamed portions of the liver were found of a yellowish or red- 

 dish-grey colour, very soft, and interspersed with yellowish 

 points of suppuration. The hepatic parenchyma surrounding 

 these spots were congested, and the peritoneal covering 

 opaque. Mr John Field records a case of abscess in the 

 liver, and says: 



"September I5th, 1823. A bay gelding, belonging to 



Mr P , died on the above day, and upon examining the 



body, it appeared that an abscess had formed in the right 

 lobe of the liver, just under the peritoneal coat, at the ante- 

 rior part of the organ: the coat under which the abscess 

 formed adhered firmly to the diaphragm. The abscess con- 

 tained 29 Ibs. of thin brown pus. The animal had been ail- 

 ing and wasting for a considerable time before, and was occa- 

 sionally unfit for work. The first acute inflammatory 

 symptoms took place about three weeks previous to his 

 death : the pulse was not frequent, but the symptoms were 

 all those of sub -acute inflammation of the pleura." 



