CHOLELITHIASIS. BILIARY CALCULI. GALLSTONES. 



In ruminants, omnivora, and' carnivora, less often in horse, i to looo, or 

 more, biliary sand to marble or more, casts ; nucleus, bile pigment, blood 

 mucus, etc., with concentric layers of cholesterine, pigment, salts and lithe. 

 Causes: idleness, overfeeding, dry feeding, thickening of bile, colloids, 

 bacteria, wintering in stable. Colloids induce globular deposits. Parasites. 

 Inflamed biliary epithelium secretes excess of .cholesterine and lime. Age: 

 Acid bile, constipation. Diseased liver. Lack of bile salts. In solipeds : 

 all sizes and numbers, green, brown, yellow or white. Liver disease. 

 Symptoms : colic with depression, prostration, yellow or red urine, icterus, 

 sudden recovery. Treatment : sulphate of soda, olive oil, antispasmodics, 

 warm drinks, fomentations, salicylate of soda, chloroform, pasture, or suc- 

 culent food, and open air exercise. In cattle : musk odor ; calculi dark 

 green, yellowish green, whitish or orange, dry red, all sizes and numbers. 

 Causes : dry winter feeding, etc. Lesions : dilated biliary ducts and blad- 

 der, catarrh, thickening, rupture, septic peritonitis. Symptoflis : relapsing 

 colic, with icterus, prostration, and tender right hypochondrium, in stalled 

 animal on dry feeding. Suggestive : not pathognomonic. Treatment : as 

 in horse : succulent spring pasturage. In sheep : rare, musky odor ; con- 

 cretions and casts common in distomatosis. Hypertrophied ducts. Symp- 

 toms of distomdtosis. Treatment : for distomatosis and calculi. In swine : 

 rare : circular. In carnivora : round, dark green, pin's head to hazel nut. 

 Symptoms : colics, constipation, emesis, icterus, tender right hypochon- 

 drium, concurrent catarrh of bowels, heart disease, dySpncea, sudden relief. 

 Mode of relief. Treatment : olive oil, bile, sodium sulphate, or salicylate, 

 antispasmodics, alkalies, enemata, fomentations. Laxative food, exercise, 

 open air. 



Gall stones are most frequent in animals having a gall bladder. 

 Some medical writers say they are formed in the gall bladder 

 only, but the .soliped which has no gall bladder has in particular 

 instances furnished hundreds of gall stones. Yet the ox, dog, 

 sheep and pig are the common victims of biliary calculi among 

 our domestic animals. In the.se the calculi appear to be mostly 

 deposited from the stagnant bile in the gall bladder, yet concre- 

 tions on the biliary ducts and hollow casts inside the ducts are by 

 no means uncommon. 



A gall .stone may be single, or they may be multiple up to 



hundreds or even thousands, and when very numerous they are 



individually small, perhaps no larger than a pin's head. They 



may, however, attain the size of a marble or more, and by mutual 



516 



