THE LIVEE. 537 



bronchial tubes are more prone to attack in the colder climate of 

 Great Britain. 



I have found that acute attacks of liver disease in India, are 

 comparativsly frequent in places where there is a marked fall, at 

 certain seasons of the year, in the temperature of the air at night ; 

 nnd that chronic disease of that organ is peculiarly rife in hot, 

 damp climates like that of Bengal. Horses thrive well, under 

 proper management, in hot climates so long as the atmosphere is 

 dry ; but the presence of an excess of moisture in it is prejudicial 

 to the well-being of these animals. In fact, in many hot, damp 

 climates, it is practically impossible to breed and rear horses 

 capable of doing ordintiry work. 



Australian and English imported horses, in India, are much more 

 liable to these affections than are Arabs and indigenous animals. 



The practice, in India, of bathing in cold, instead of hot water, 

 is a fruitful source of -liver disease among men; and acts in the 

 same baneful manner as that of depriving horses of their clothing 

 during cold nights which follow hot days. 



SYMPTOMS. — ^Yellowness of the gums and of the lining mem- 

 brane of the eyelids ; loss of condition ; clay colour and offensive 

 smell of the dung, vhich is sometimes mixed with ooffee-ooloured 

 patches ; sour smell from the mouth ; loss of appetite ; constipa- 

 tion ; and urine high coloured on account of the colouring matter 

 of the bile being excreted along with it. There is dulness and 

 depression, accompanied at first by some fever, which may be 

 perceived from the increased frequency of the pulse and rise in 

 the internal temperature of the body. The horse may evince, on 

 pressure over the region of his liver (the right side), the presence 

 of pain. In some few oases, there is lameness of the off fore leg. 



NATURE OF THE DISEASE.— The liver is a large gland, which weighs, 

 in the average adult horse, about 11 lbs. Besides the arteries that go to it 

 for its own nutrition, as well as their corresponding veins, the liver receives 

 a large supply of blood from the portal vein, into which is poured the 

 greater part of the blood that is received from the internal organs of 

 digestion on its way back to the heart. The liver, therefore, has two 

 systems of circulation ; namely, one nutritive ;■ the other functional. Speak- 

 ing in general terms, the chief functions of the liver are : (1) To form 

 glycogen from the saccharine and nitrogenous matters which are absorbed 

 into the blood from the food. Glycogen is stored in the cells of the liver, 

 from which it is removed in the form of grape sugar into the general 

 circulation ; partly for supplying the system with force (for movement and 

 the maintenance of the internal heat), in being converted into carbonic 

 acid and water by its union with the inspired oxygen, which combines 

 with its carbon ; partly for the nourishment of the tissues ; and probably, 

 for the formation of fat. (2) To break up worn-out red blood corpuscles, 

 which yield bile pigment and urea, and which are dissolved by the bile 

 acids. (3) To convert albuminous matters (both waste and nutritive) in the 



