HEMORRHOIDS. 139 
Owing to the slowness with which the coloring matter of the bile is absorbed 
from the tissues, the whites of the eyes continue yellowish for some days after 
the function of the liver is restored. 
DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN. 
The spleen has been frequently removed without permanent injury, the most 
constant effects being increase of appetite and an unnatural ferocity ; but the 
same results have followed some other operations. This organ cannot, there- 
fore, have great individual importance, and must be regarded as merely a help 
to other organs, which may, if necessary, completely or to a great extent perform 
its function. 
Acute inflammation of the spleen or splenitis is an exceedingly rare affec- 
tion. The symptoms which have been observed are restlessness, tenderness 
under the lower ribs on the left side, some fever, loss of appetite, vomiting, 
great thirst, and, as Youatt observes, “shivering, the ears cold, the eyes unnat- 
urally protuberant, the nostrils dilated, the flanks agitated, the respiration 
accelerated, and the mucous membrane pale.” The same author mentions a 
discharge of a yellow, frothy mucus by vomiting, which suggests that in those 
cases an abscess had formed in the spleen and perforation into the stomach had 
occurred. 
This disease can scarcely ever be diagnosed during life. Were it detected, 
the general principles of treatment indicated would be much the same as in 
acute inflammation of other organs similar in structure. 
In certain diseases of the general system, and in some affections of other 
organs, the spleen becomes enlarged for a time and then returns to its normal 
size. 
Chronic enlargement of this gland, unless it be greatly increased in size, is 
rarely attended with any symptoms to indicate the condition. Were it discov- 
ered, the essential treatment would be symptomatic, and the same as in chronic 
hepatitis. 
The spleen takes on degenerative changes in common with the liver, but a 
consideration of them can be of no possible interest or profit to the general 
reader. 
HEMORRHOIDS. 
Hemorrhoids or piles are small, rounded tumors, generally of a red or pur- 
plish color, which form just within or without the orifice of the bowel; hence 
the distinction between internal and external piles. 
