PROFESSOR SIMONDS’S LECTURE. 
511 
often from obstructions taking place in the passage of the bile from 
the liver to the intestinal canal. They might thus have three or 
four different causes for attacks of jaundice ; a fact which shews 
the absolute necessity, when cattle or sheep are affected, that the 
farmer should consult some competent authority to ascertain the 
origin of the malady. [The lecturer referred to a specimen of 
biliary calculus, to illustrate an obstruction in the biliary ducts.] 
As he had said, the secretion of the bile depended on the condition 
of the blood which went to the liver, and that again on the quantity 
and quality of the food on which the animal was fed. From the 
well known fact of the physical properties of the bile undergoing 
a variety of changes, they could easily understand that it sometimes 
had a tendency to thicken, and thus to lay the foundation for biliary 
calculi. These calculi not unfrequently formed in the gall-bladder 
or the biliary ducts; and it was very important, more especially in 
sheep, to ascertain the exact situation in which they were located. 
If the gall stones accumulate in the gall-bladder, they might do 
very little harm ; but if, on the contrary, in the main or common 
duct of the sheep, they might be productive of a considerable 
amount of mischief, by preventing the flow not only of the bile in 
that animal, but likewise of pancreatic fluid into the intestinal canal. 
They would find the symptoms differed very much in jaundice af- 
fections : if the disease were caused by simple functional derange- 
ment, the attack was usually sudden, and occurred most frequently 
in the summer months. It seemed to proceed from an undue sti- 
mulus given to the liver, causing a greater secretion of bile than 
was necessary for the chylifi cation of the food : this produced the 
mildest form of jaundice. In bilious diseases, among the other 
symptoms, a change was observed in the urine ; it was of a browner 
colour, which was caused by the efforts of the kidneys to per- 
form the functions of the liver by carrying off the colouring matter 
of the bile when that organ was prostrated by disease. In some 
cases of jaundice, diarrhoea was present, but in other cases there 
was constipation. It might be ascertained whether or not jaundice 
was occasioned by organic lesions : the increased pulsation, and the 
febrile state of the system, would shew at once that the attack was 
referrible to inflammation ; whilst the absence of those symptoms, 
and the long continuance of the disease, indicated the existence of 
a biliary calculus. He wished to impress on them the importance 
to be attached to the slightest symptom of ill-health : for instance, 
in treating jaundice referrible to inflammation, it was necessary 
to remove the morbid action as quickly as possible, by giving 
aperient medicine, drawing blood from the system, and also by 
the application of counter-irritants to the side : but none of these 
means were required in simple functional derangement. If there 
