440 Veterinary Medicine. 



Skin Diseases are notoriously liable to come from inactive or 

 disordered liver, the irritant products circulating in the skin or 

 sweating out through it, giving rise to more or less irritation. 

 The result may be a simple pruritus, an urticaria, an eruption of 

 papules, vesicles or even pustules. In any such cases it is proper 

 to look for other indications of liver disease, — pale color and 

 offensive odor of the faeces, muco-enteritis, indigestion, icterus or 

 yellow patches on the mucous membranes, tenderness on percus- 

 sion over the asternal ribs, muscular neuralgia, nervous disorder, 

 the passage of bile, haemoglobin, albumen, sugar or other ab- 

 normal elements in the urine, etc. 



TREATMENT OP SECONDARY AND FUNCTIONAL 

 DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 



Diet. Many hepatic disorders, and especially those that are 

 exclusively or mainly functional may be corrected by diet alone. 

 Prominent among dietary influences is the abundant supply of 

 water. The succulent grasses of spring and early summer con- 

 stitute the ideal diet, hastening and increasing elimination, and 

 lessening the density of the bile, even to the extent of dissolving • 

 biliary calculi and concretions. Upon dry winter feeding such 

 calculi are common, especially in ruminants, whereas after a 

 month or two at pasture they are extremely rare. In winter the 

 same good may be arrived at by the use of ensilage, brewer's 

 grains, roots, fruits, or even scalded hay or bran. The two 

 extremes of highly albuminous and highly carbonaceous or 

 saccharine food are to be avoided or used only in limited 

 amounts. In the one class are clover, alfalfa, sainfoin, vetches, 

 cow-pea, lespedeza, especially in the form of hay, beans, peas, 

 cotton-seed, gluten-meal, rape and linseed cake. In the other 

 are wheat, buckwheat, Indian corn, sorghum, sweet-corn and 

 cornstalks. Some agents like beets which are rich in saccharine 

 matter may be actually beneficial by reason of their laxative and 

 cholagogue action. In the carnivora the food should be largely 

 of simple mush of oatmeal, wheat seconds, or barley meal, skim- 



