367 
ENLARGEMENT OF THE SPLEEN. 
This horse first appeared to be ill in January ; he was skilfully 
treated; his complaint seemed to leave him, although the groom 
then suspected the existence of tumour m the abdomen, he got 
into “ tolerable good condition, 1 ’ and so continued until the 7th 
of May, when he discharged bloody urine : the kidney then pro¬ 
bably began to be involved. We can hardly conceive of a horse 
being in “ tolerable fair condition,” and certainly not of his clo- 
ino; his ordinary work, with such a tumour within him. It must 
have been of recent and rapid growth. 
Of the causes of these tumours, in our present state of veteri¬ 
nary knowledge, we can say little. There must have been a pecu¬ 
liar condition or disposition of the body previous to the formation 
of the tumour; but in what this disposition consisted, 01 what 
gave birth to it, we know nothing. With regard to the symp¬ 
toms, we are as much in the dark ; and, indeed, what can be 
said when Mr. Anderson confesses that neither he nor Mr. Row¬ 
land “ suspected the existence of such a voluminous tumour.” 
The naturally convex form of the spleen, and the accumulation 
of the tumours on its inner surface, may account for the existence 
of such a mass without any considerable increase of bulk, if which 
had existed, it would have been perceived; and the lanci¬ 
nating pains which are described in carcinoma of parts supplied 
by the nerves of sensation, would be scarcely suspected, and is 
rarely or never found in similar affections of parts fed only by the 
organic nerves. The little impairment of function in this case 
may be accounted for by the consideration, that the office of the 
spleen is yet undetermined, and that it has been removed with¬ 
out apparent injury to any function. Yet we should have ex¬ 
pected some impairment of digestion—some loss of condition 
from the pressure of such a mass on the stomach and intestines, 
and some difficulty in breathing, from its interference with the 
action of the diaphragm*. 
* M. Delafoy gives an account of a horse, which he had known for two 
years**that had never carried much flesh, but yet had been always gay, 
and had fed well, and worked well, and had shewn no indisposition until 
five days before his death. On the caeco-gastric portion of his colon a 
tumour was fixed that weighed 30tbs. Mr. Karkeek saw a mare that had 
been an excellent hack, and was often ridden long and fatiguing journeys, 
with ease to herself and pleasure to her rider, who died after an illness ot 
a month, and in whose abdomen, surrounded by the small intestines, was a 
tumour that weighed 23lbs. The only enlargement, however, that we are 
aware of comparable to this, was that ot a cow, that was in tolerable con¬ 
dition, and walked pretty well with the other cattle. T he liver was much 
enlarged, and weighed, when removed from the abdomen, 137tbs. Of 
enlargement of the spleen in the horse there is but one on record which 
weighed 35tbs. Mr. Campbell says that he once saw the spleen ot a bitch 
five times as large as that of a cow. 
