322 CANINE DISTEMPER IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
the biliary coagula were a consequence of this, there being no 
sufficient vis a tergo , or the impediment early existed in the 
inability of the ducts to force along such thick matter. 
Bile not flowing into the duodenum would arrest digestion, 
occasion its derangement, and prevent the absorption of fat ; 
and by passing into the circulation would tinge the tissues, 
and flow off by the urine — causing torpor and muscular 
relaxation. Is it possible to suppose, that, at one time, there 
was a total suppression of bile, and for so long a period, that 
the contents of the bile-ducts had become so inspissated, that 
when the liver was again excited to action, the inertia of 
the ducts could not be overcome, and the bile was therefore 
pent up and thrown back into the circulation ? 
Again, we may conceive that a morbid process of secretion 
was going on all the time, and such bile became gradually 
thicker and thicker, till it became immoveable under the con- 
tractile efforts of the ducts, and so systemic jaundice took 
place, but not before. 
As it seems a condition in the elimination of bile, that it 
should be separated from venous blood, and from blood con- 
taining absorbed matters of food, so, under the supposition of 
suppression of function in the hepatic cells, the portal capil- 
laries in the liver would become inactive, and congestion 
would gradually ensue, and extend backwards to the splenic 
and intestinal circulation. While the hepatic artery might 
continue in free circulation, the splenic, gastric and intestinal 
arteries would finally react upon the organs on which they 
were distributed. Hence, probably, came to pass the conges- 
tion of the spleen, which kept so constantly increasing, and 
telling upon the contractility of the organ, that at last it gave 
way, like a ruptured heart — the traheculae breaking — and 
nothing remained to retain the engorged contents but the 
peritoneal coat. We can, therefore, scarcely consider the 
spleen to be the original seat, or its derangements to be the 
initial steps of the disease. 
There are a few more theoretical deductions that may be 
propounded on this piece of canine pathology, but we do 
not deem them worthy of further notice. 
