Diseases of the Liver and Spleen. 91 



two to four drops twice a day, often assist recovery and 

 keep a clean palate ; or the iodide of potassium, in five to 

 ten grain doses, may be tried. Plain unstimulating food 

 and free exercise should be allowed, and a relaxed condition 

 of the bowels maintained. 



Chronic hepatitis, from interference in the portal circula- 

 tion, often terminates jn ascites, more particularly in old dogs. 

 (See "Dropsy.") 



JAUNDICE (Icterus). 



This is an affection to which dogs are peculiarly liable. 

 Greyhounds have been stated to be more generally the sub- 

 ject of it than other breeds. My experience of the disease, 

 however, has been chiefly confined to the smaller breeds, 

 especially pampered house-dogs. 



Jaundice may exist alone, or be associated with other 

 affections, particularly distemper, in which, by dog-men, it 

 is usually separated from the malady giving rise to it, and 

 treated independently as the " Yellows." (See " Dis- 

 temper.") 



Causes . — Suppression orretention of bile, more particularly 

 the latter, which becomes re-absorbed into the system.* 



* Sir Thomas Watson, in his lecture on this subject, says : " There 

 can be no doubt that when the bile, after being formed in the liver, is 

 detained there, or in the gall-bladder, in consequence of some impedi- 

 ment to its excretion, it is re-absorbed — both by the lymphatic vessels 

 and by the veins — carried into the circulation, and so conveyed to the 

 surface, and to the parts in which the change of colour is observed. In 

 the beginning of the present century. Dr. Saunders, of Guy's Hospital, 

 made, on this subject, some conclusive experiments, which have since 

 been repeated by others with similar results. The hepatic duct of a dog 

 having been tied, and the animal killed two hours afterwards, the nu- 

 merous lymphatics in the walls of the bile-ducts were seen to be dis- 

 tended with a yellow fluid ; the fluid in the thoracic duct also was yellow ; 

 and so were the i;itervening lymphatic glands. Again, two hours after 

 the ligation of the hepatic duct, the serum of blood taken from the he- 

 patic vein was found to contain much more of the colouring matter of 

 the bile, than that of blood taken from the jugular vein in the neck. 

 That bile is capable of being taken up by the absorbents is further ap- 

 parent from the fact that when the cystic duct is permanently shut, the 

 bile disappears gradually, but entirely, from the gall-bladder. 



