ON HEPATITIS IN THE HORSE. 
331 
better marked. The bowels are constipated — the faeces buttony, 
voided in small quantities, and covered with vitiated bile which 
varies in shades of colour from nearly black to that of a yellowish 
brown — the animal frequently lies quietly down, and turns his nose 
to his side — the membranous lining of the lips is tinged with yel- 
low — the mouth is clammy, and the tongue, probably, more furred 
than it is in any other disease. In different cases the pulse varies 
much in frequency, but there is usually a peculiarity about it — it 
is soft and vacillating. Occasionally the animal has a stiffened 
gait and a staggering of the hind extremities. Sometimes diar- 
rhoea supervenes, and the alvine excretions are extremely fetid, 
varying much in shades of colour and degrees of fluidity — some- 
times resembling light clayey-coloured water, and at other times 
having the appearance of an addled egg. 
In this stage the disease becomes alarming, as the appetite is 
gone — -the pulse frequent and indistinct — the Schneiderian mem- 
brane occasionally of a purple hue — and the breath fetid ; in short, 
it assumes a typhoid character. Cases sometimes oocur in which 
the disease shews itself suddenly, and might be mistaken for some 
chest affection, as the respiration is frequent and short, and accom- 
panied by a troublesome cough. Here much depends upon pro- 
fessional tact as to the indications derived from the pulse, the cha- 
racteristic tinge of the membranous lining of the lips being scarcely 
perceptible in an early stage of the complaint : it soon, however, 
becomes apparent enough. 
If we suppose that these symptoms are the effect of a derange- 
ment of function in the liver, and which may probably render the 
blood too impure for the due performance of the functions of animal 
life, our first indication of treatment is to restore this viscus to a 
healthy state and action; and in order to accomplish this, calomel is, 
in my opinion, the most efficient medicinal agent. But it is a 
question of considerable importance, whether it is most effective 
when administered in a full dose and evacuated by a cathartic, or 
given in small ones which may be retained in the system by being- 
combined with opium. So far as I have been enabled to observe, 
I am of opinion that the latter mode is decidedly preferable, because 
the disease is generally accompanied with too much loss of appe- 
tite, and intestinal irritation and debility, to admit of large doses 
either of drastic or nauseating medicines. 
As regards bleeding, much depends upon our early attendance 
and the nature of the symptoms. If the respiration is disturbed 
and the pulse ranging high, the abstraction of blood is in all proba- 
bility beneficial : but, if the horse should have been ill for two or 
three days, and the pulse is slow and feeble, the chance of* the ani- 
mal’s recovery is much greater when venesection is,omitted. 
