380 
ON JAUNDICE IN THE DOG. 
cause of jaundice, and with the more evident concomitant cir- 
cumstances. Some of these symptoms are constant and others 
variable. Among the first, whatever be the cause of the jaundice, 
we ought to reckon acceleration of the pulse — fever, with pa- 
roxysms of occasional intensity — and a clear or reddish yellow 
discolouration of the urine. Among the second are constipation 
or diarrhoea, the absence or increase of colour in the faecal matter, 
whether solid or fluid. When they are solid they are usually 
void of much colour ; when, on the contrary, there is diarrhoea, the 
faeces are frequently mingled with blood more or less changed : 
sometimes the dejections are entirely black, and then they are 
composed almost entirely of vitiated blood, mixed with mucus. 
It is not unfrequent for a chest affection to be complicated with 
the lesions of the digestive organs which are the cause of jaundice. 
With these leading symptoms, there are often others connected 
which are common to an infinity of maladies, such as dryness and 
heat of the muzzle — dryness of the mouth — a fetid smell from 
the buccal membrane — a staggering gait— roughness of the hair, 
and particularly that of the back — an insatiable thirst, accom- 
panied by the refusal of all food, whether solid or pultaceous — 
loss of flesh, which occasionally proceeds with astonishing 
rapidity — a tucked up and corded belly, and the hardness and 
tenderness principally referable to the anterior part of the belly. 
The jaundice which is not accompanied with fever, nor indeed 
with any morbid change but the colour of the skin, will require 
very little treatment. It will usually disappear in a reasonable 
time, and I have not found that any kind of treatment would 
hasten that disappearance. 
When 'any new symptom becomes superadded to jaundice, it 
must be immediately combatted. Fever, injection of the vessels 
of the conjunctiva, constipation, diarrhoea, or the discolouration 
of the urine, require one bleeding, with some mucilaginous drinks. 
Purgatives are always injurious at the commencement of the dis- 
ease. I consider this of the utmost importance, and, indeed, it 
was principally in order to bring this fairly before the public that 
I have ventured to publish this essay. Almost the whole of the 
dogs that have been brought to me seriously ill with jaundice, 
have been purged once or oftener, or, at least, kitchen salt or 
tobacco, or jalap, or syrup of buckthorn, or emetic tartar, or 
some unknown purgative powders, have been administered. The 
bleeding should be repeated several times, if the fever continues, 
or the animal coughs, or the respiration is accelerated. When 
the pulse is subdued, and the number of pulsations is below the 
natural standard — if the excrements are still void of their natural 
colour — if the constipation continues, or the animal refuses 
