326 
SPLENIC DISEASE. 
tions of two horses which died rather suddenly, and found 
all the symptoms of a blood disease, with the special charac- 
teristics of splenic apoplexy ; and I doubt not but that it 
will be found associated with deaths from enteritis and other 
abdominal diseases terminating suddenly fatal ; more espe- 
cially in young plethoric subjects, oftener than has hitherto 
been suspected. 
In stating my opinion of its nature and causes, I would 
first direct attention to its occurrence at all seasons, under 
very various circumstances as regards food and water, soil, 
temperature or climate ; while neither age, sex, nor species 
form any exception to its ravages. A disease so widely 
spread, so rapidly fatal, and presenting lesions so uniform 
and characteristic, must depend on some very special causes, 
and owe its origin to something as yet not properly deter- 
mined. I believe it does not arise from the use of any par- 
ticular kind or quality of food or water, so much as from 
some special elements pervading, more or less, all kinds of 
food, and the special circumstances under which they are 
given, the excessive development of these elements and un- 
natural conditions by cultivation. There is no specific entity 
in the disease ; it does not fall from the skies, nor spring out 
of the ground per se, it is entirely a disease of improved 
cultivation, artificial manures, and artificial food. 
Although it has been designated splenic apoplexy, I believe 
it is more a disease of the liver, or disorder of its functions, 
than disease of the spleen, the latter being, in the first place, 
merely a passive agent in its production ; whilst the former 
is active, and always bears traces of diseased action, but from 
its structural peculiarities does not exhibit such manifest 
lesions. 
The intimate connection between these organs ; their re- 
lation to the organic constituents of the blood, always in 
superabundance in these cases ; their structural differences 
and functional peculiarities ; have not been sufficiently con- 
sidered in treating of its nature or accounting for its produc- 
tion. 
The relation between the liver and spleen — as well as the 
purpose served by the latter in regard to the portal circula- 
tion — is intimate and important. In man we know that 
structural diseases of the liver are frequently associated with 
enlargement of the spleen, as in cirrhosis and leucocythemia; 
while it has been regarded as a kind of reservoir or diverti- 
culum to the portal circulation. This is rendered probable 
by the enlargement which it undergoes in affections of the 
heart and liver attended with obstruction to the passage of 
