THE VETERINARY ART IN INDIA. 
387 
accumulating from his eating foul grass. The secretion of chyle, 
which nourishes the blood, being thus obstructed, the animal 
will fall away, and, his blood becoming poor, blotches, sores, and 
baldness very much resembling the mange, frequently succeed. 
It is also possible that the accumulation of dirt, by obstructing 
the biliary duct, may sometimes be a remote cause of ulcered 
liver; first producing the yellows or jaundice, and ultimately 
scirrhus. 
Thus we find the benefit arising from purgatives must be from 
the following effects, either separately or combined : — 
First, by increasing the action of the bile ducts and irritating 
the orifice, by which more bile is discharged and obstructions 
removed. 
Secondly, by irritating the mouths of the lacteals, causing a 
temporary reversion of their functions ; for they now discharge 
their contents instead of absorbing them, by which the blood is de- 
prived of a considerable quantity of chyle or nourishment, which is 
a desirable effect when the habit requires to be reduced. This 
discharge will also soften any accumulated faeces, which might 
otherwise do injury by obstructing the intestines. 
The third and last is a general stimulus produced through the 
whole length of the intestines, which causes them to throw off the 
over-abundant mucus that frequently obstructs the mouths of 
the lacteals. The worm-like or peristaltic motion of the intestines 
is also much increased, by which they discharge a great part of 
their contents. 
This form of medicine I believe to be of more general use in 
hot climates than in cold. Extensive doses are used in this 
country without much reducing the animal ; while in England a 
violent dose is generally attended wdth tedious ill effects. The 
liver, in this country, is as much subject to be diseased in the 
horse as amongst the natives ; and more horses are destroyed in 
consequence of ulcerated livers than is generally suspected. 
A military gentleman in the Honourable Company’s service, very 
much in the habit of keeping and paying great attention to 
horses, informed me he had four horses opened which died of 
ulcerated livers in the space of two years; and, from my own 
observations, I am convinced that it is a very common and fatal 
disease. In this case, an early and more general use of mercu- 
rial purgatives might, probably, sometimes prevent it, which is the 
only mode that can be recommended as likely to be beneficial ; 
for I imagine it may be with ease prevented, although the cure 
is impossible. 
