SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 165 
domains of pathology” (as our President truly remarked) “ as yet 
almost unbroken up.” 
Diseases of the Liver I think have scarcely received the atten- 
tion they deserve. We are rather apt to overlook the important 
part this organ plays in digestion. Jaundice, inflammation, enlarge- 
ment, and its other diseases, are not unfrequent, especially among 
cattle; and many of the cases of colic and disorders of the bowels 
in horses are due to congestion and derangement of the liver. The 
spleen, too, we are apt to forget. We know it is sometimes fear- 
fully enlarged, and I have seen it the seat of extensive inflammation 
and abscesses : while in its relations to the singular disease splenic 
apoplexy, we have proof of its importance. 
Besides their own diseases, the digestive organs play an impor- 
tant part in the origin and progress of those of other organs. Thus 
many blood diseases arise from bad food or from imperfect diges- 
tion. In some diseases of the brain the stomach and bowels parti- 
cipate, disease or disorder of the one produces functional derange- 
ment of the other, and vice versa. To the knowledge of these facts 
may be attributed the comparative rarity of such disorders as black 
quarter, and our success in red-water, staggers, puerperal fever, 
weed, &c. 
Let us now pass to 
Diseases of the Respiratory Organs . — Of their importance we 
are all aware. In all our practice we have none, I think, that 
require more care and attention — none more insidious in their 
attack, and more difficult to diagnose — none more susceptible to 
the benefits of good treatment, or more easily affected by neglect 
or errors of judgment. Diseases of the chest are now better under- 
stood and more scientifically treated, so that in horse practice, at 
least, fatal cases are comparatively rare, and many of these might 
be prevented were they sooner put into our hands, and had better 
accommodation been provided and attention paid to them by those in 
charge. Indeed, I go the length of saying, that were a good vete- 
rinary surgeon always to get his cases of bronchitis, pneumonia, and 
pleurisy in their first stages, and had he everything he desired as to 
good ventilation, housing, and nursing, some seasons he might lose 
more than others, yet his average losses would be very few indeed. 
If such be the case among horses, why do we so fail with pleuro- 
pneumonia in cattle? The old reasons still hold good; setting 
aside the question of its infectious character, the pleuro-pneumonia 
epizootica of cattle is of a different character to, and a more deadly 
nature than, the pleuro-pneumonia of horses, and justice is seldom 
done to us or our patients. Had we as many horses affected with 
pleurisy at a time, and had we to treat them in the hot, confined, 
and stifling, or in the cold, clean, damp byres in which our cattle 
stand, there would be more deaths among them. Had we even 
here also all that we wish as to ventilation and attention, our per 
centage of cures, instead of standing at twenty or thirty, would be 
very much higher. But we need not enter on this subject. It i3 
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