32 
A CASE OF HEPATIRRHCEA. 
By Mr. E. A. Friend, Walsall . 
The Veterinarian for September contained a case of he- 
patirrhcea, from Mr. Spooner, of Southampton ; and as I always 
feel great interest in his communications, I at once turned to it, 
and felt much pleased with his clear and concise statement of facts. 
I now send you a companion to it, and hope that some valuable 
practical application may arise out of the recollection of these on 
the recurrence of any similar case to another practitioner. 
Some two or three years ago, I was called upon in great haste 
to attend a horse belonging to W. Cotterill, Esq., of this place, 
that had been purchased a few weeks previously at Bindley’s Re- 
pository, Birmingham, at a sale of some of Mr. E. Peel’s horses 
there. He was a magnificent hunter, but very impetuous. I found 
him apparently in considerable pain, with distended nostrils, labo- 
rious respiration, and the pulsation of the heart very quick and 
audible. To alleviate these symptoms I proceeded to bleed him, 
but had not abstracted more than a pint before I desisted, and 
sent the groom into the house to tell his master that if he wished 
to see his horse again alive he must come immediately, as he 
had not many minutes remaining. When he came, I said, “ I 
have killed your horse; at least, I have accelerated his death. 
My opinion is, that there is internal hemorrhage, and that he will 
die immediately.” He did so in less than five minutes. He had 
been hunted the day before with some harriers, and had been 
ridden (in the true spirit of larking) over several rasping fences, 
which he had done in an extraordinary manner. 
The post-mortem examination was remarkable merely from the 
appearance of the liver : it varied only from that described by 
Mr. Spooner in the circumstance that, in this case, not one-fifth 
portion of that viscus was left ; the rest had become absorbed, and 
the formerly investing membrane was distended to an enormous 
extent, with firmly coagulated blood. There was now rupture of 
this membrane, and the hemorrhage into the cavity of the abdo- 
men had produced death. He had appeared in perfect health up 
to that time, and I attribute the rupture to the great exertions of 
the previous day. 
Like Mr. Spooner, in his case, I was of opinion that the 
original lesions were of long standing, and fortunately I had an 
opportunity (I think) of proving the correctness of this opinion. 
I was on a visit a short time afterwards to Mr. Robinson, of 
Tamworth, and, in the course of conversation, asked him if he 
