96 DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



and hard, the edges of the lobes are bhint, on the surface there are 

 a number of uneven depressions. On making a transverse section 

 Ave find a network of reddish-gray tissue that surrounds the acini; 

 later on this involves the acini. In the second stage we find a 

 cicatricial retraction of the newly formed tissue, and at the same 

 time a disappearance of true tissue of the liver. The liver then 

 becomes gradually smaller and has a very irregular surface; the 

 capsule is thickened and in some places depressed ; the tissue is 

 hard and tough when cut with a knife. 



Clinical Symptoms. The disease generally starts without any 

 visible symptoms, although it is a common disease in old dogs that 

 have lived well. When the disease becomes pretty well advanced 

 we find evidences of an interference in the portal circulation by the 

 appearance of ascites and chronic catarrh of the stomach. With 

 these symptoms we also find a tendency to constipation with occa- 

 sional changes to diarrhoea. In rare cases a certain amount of 

 icterus is present. This is due either to interference with the passage 

 (if bile from the gall-bladder by catarrh of the duodenum, or to 

 a contracted condition of the small bile-ducts. There is no pain 

 on pressure in the region of the liver, even in the advanced stages 

 of the disease. 



The disease is generally very slow, but ends fatally, and when 

 there are ascites and some cedema of the extremities present the end 

 is not far off. 



Therapeutics. This consists in treating the case as if it were 

 one of catarrh of the stomach, by means of saline purgatives, and 

 the ascites by puncture. 



3. Purulent Inflammation of the Liver (Abscess of the 

 Liver). This may be caused by injuries, such as blows or kicks 

 externally, or from foreign bodies or perforating abscesses coming 

 from the stomach , from metastasis, from phlebitis and the thrombus 

 undergoing purulent destruction, and from pyaemia in abscess of 

 the stomach. 



Pathological Anatomy. Abscesses of the liver appear 

 singly or in large numbers; the traumatic abscess is generally 

 solitary and the metastatic multiple. The pus is cream-like, and 

 in some instances fetid and reddish-green in color. Small ab- 

 scesses may heal by reabsorption, but the large ones open into the 

 abdominal cavity and cause a fatal peritonitis. 



