ON THE DISORDERS OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 151 



larged before death and bulged out behind the ribs on 

 the left side. The third patient was a large boarhound 

 treated at the Eoyal Veterinary College, London. On 

 admission he was in f.iir condition, but he fell away in 

 flesh and looked bad in his coat. The spleen was found 

 of enormous size and gorged with blood after death, 

 which was considered as due to splenic apoplexy, not the 

 form of anthrax known under that name, however. 



Sarcomatous Growth in, and other Malignant Disease of 

 the Spleen of the Dog is not rare. The case by Gowing, of 

 Camden Town,* is a good example of this disease. In 

 leukaemia and anthrax the spleen is often the principal 

 seat of lesions detected post mortem. 



Diseases of the other Ductless Glands. — The Thyroid 

 Body is well developed in dogs and liable to enlargement, 

 either of an acute or chronic character. Bronchocile 

 or Goitre is specially frequent in carnivora among 

 quadrupeds, and differs in some very important respects 

 from the same disease in man. Thus it is not endemic 

 and is often very acute. It can generally be associated 

 with starvation and dirt, although it is not unfrequent in 

 newly -born pups, and as often several in a litter suffer 

 from it, and it is generally an accompaniment of rickets 

 or deformities, it is considered hereditary, although pos- 

 sibly rather due to malnutrition of the female parent during 

 utero-gestation. It especially occurs in certain breeds, 

 pugs being most liable to it. They have large glands in 

 the throat (vulgarly called " kernels ") while young, and 

 the enlargement decreases in proportion to growth in the 

 majority of cases or readily yields to absorbent treatment, 

 external and internal. It has been noted, however, that 

 the swelling of the glands is periodically recurrent, and so 

 an apparently favorable result of treatment may prove 

 deceptive. Youatt tells us "there is a breed of the 

 Blenheim spaniel in which this periodical goitre is very 

 remarkable ; the slightest cold is accompanied by enlarge- 

 ment of the thyroid gland, but the swelling altogether 

 disappears in the course of a fortnight." As a rule 



• ' Veterinary Journal,' x, p. 385. 



