Cirrhosis in the Horse. 513 



In chronic or recurrent perihepatitis, a whole lobe may be 

 compressed by the hyperplasia of the investing connective tissue, 

 and the hepatic cells are degenerated and absorbed. 



Overdistension of the biliary ducts from obstruction to the flow 

 of bile (gall stone, catarrhal inflammation, constipation), leads to 

 proliferation and hyperplasia in the walls of the biliary radicals 

 throughout the entire liver. 



The presence in the liver of toxic agents, ingested, or gene- 

 rated from microbian fermentation in the intestinal canal or liver 

 is another recognized cause of connective tissue hyperplasia. 



CIRRHOSIS IN THE HORSE. 



Cirrhosis of venous origin has been observed mainly in old 

 horses, while hypertrophic cirrhosis from biliary obstruction oc- 

 curs rather in the young (Cadeac). Briickmiiller records a case 

 of the first kind in a horse with extreme pulmonary emphysema. 

 Walley gives a bad condition of fodders as the main cause, vir- 

 tually implying, in many cases, infective catarrh and obstruction 

 of the biliary ducts. 



A form of the disease prevails at Schweinsberg in Hesse, and 

 has been variously attributed to spoiled fodders (Nicklas), to 

 vegetable alkaloids and other poisons in the food (Friedberger 

 and Frbhner), to clover, to telluric poisons (Redner), to infec- 

 tion (Meminger), and to heredity (Neidhart). It is a sug- 

 gestive fact that it is confined to the valleys of the Ohm, Glon, 

 and Zusam where the land is peaty and swampy and subject to in- 

 undations, while it is unknown on the dry table lands (Fried- 

 berger and Frohner) . This strongly suggests intoxication with 

 microbes or their deleterious products. The gastric catarrh that 

 frequently attends the disease may point in the same direction. 



Symptoms. These are too often general rather than diag- 

 nostic. Dullness, prostration, hebetude, yawning, hot, sticky 

 mouth, lost, irregular or depraved appetite, colics, constipation 

 or diarrhoea, dry, harsh coat, emaciation, weakness, oedema of 

 the limbs, vertigo and drowsiness may be among the symptoms. 



33 



