550 Veterinary Medicine. 



is to rupture and extensive extravasation of blood (30 to 40 lbs.) 

 into the peritoneum. • 



Carcinoma. Epithelioma. These forms of malignant disease 

 are not uncommon in the liver as secondary deposits, the primary 

 lesions being found in the spleen, stomach, intestine, or pancreas, 

 or, more distant still, in the lungs. The grafting or colonization 

 of the cancer in the liver depends on the transmission of its ele- 

 ments through the vena portse in the one case, and through the 

 pulmonary veins, the left heart and hepatic artery in the other. 



Lesions. The liver may be greatly enlarged, weighing twenty- 

 seven pounds (Benjamin) to forty- three pounds (Chauveau), 

 hard, firm, and studded with firm nodules of varying sizes. 

 These stand out from the surface, giving an irregular nodular 

 appearance, and are scattered through its snbstance where, on 

 section, they appear as gray or white fibrous, resistant, spheroidal 

 masses shading off to a reddish tinge in their outer layers. 

 Microscopically these consist of a more or less abundant fibrous 

 stroma, enclosing, communicating alveoli filled with cells of 

 various shapes and sizes, with large nuclei (often multiple) which 

 stain deeply in pigments. The relative amount of fibrous stroma 

 and cells determines the consistency of the mass, and whether it 

 approximates to the hard cancer or the soft. In the horse's liver 

 they are usually hard, and, on scraping off the cut surface, yield 

 only a limited quantity of cancer juice. In the epithelial form, 

 which embraces nearly all that have originated from primary 

 malignant growth in the walls of the intestine, the epithelioid 

 cells, flattened, cubical, polyhedral, etc., are arranged in spheroi- 

 dal masses or cylindrical extensions, which infiltrate the tissues 

 more or less. These seem in some cases to commence in the 

 radical bile ducts (Martin), and in others in the minor coats of 

 the larger biliary ducts. 



As the disease advances a brownish liquid effusion is found in 

 the abdomen, and nodular masses formed on the surface of the 

 peritoneum. 



Symptoms. As in other tumors of the liver these are obscure. 

 As the disease advances there may be oedema of the legs and 

 sheath, indications of ascites, stiff movements, icterus, occasional 

 colics, tympanies, and diarrhoea. Nervous symptoms may also 

 appear, such as dullness, stupor, coma, vertigo and spasms. 

 Emaciation goes on rapidly and death soon supervenes. 



