er>o 
ON HAEMORRHAGE FROM THE LIVER. 
tion of the fatty parts; the horse gets weaker; the pupil of one 
or both eyes gradually dilates, from the diminished sensibility of 
the retina to light, until the eyes become completely amaurotic. 
It is a remarkable fact, that, notwithstanding the patient may 
rally for a time from the disease, regain his strength and con¬ 
dition, and return to work, I have neither seen nor heard of a sin¬ 
gle instance of the recovery of sight, although in one case the 
horse worked for twelve months afterwards. Amaurosis more 
commonly occurs after the second or third attack. The perma¬ 
nency of amaurosis in these cases would seem to be an effect 
of the morbid alteration of structure in the liver, rather than the 
simple consequence of haemorrhage; for, on inquiry, I cannot 
learn of such an effect having resulted from uterine or other 
haemorrhage, however profuse, in the human subject, unless the 
statement of Voltaire, which seems somewhat in point, can be 
relied upon*. 
If the haemorrhage be beneath the peritoneal investment, or in 
the substance of the liver, or under the peritoneum, and cease, 
the symptoms consequent upon the loss of blood diminish, and 
about the third day of such improvement the previously blanched 
conjunctive and buccal membranes are tinged with a yellow colour, 
which gradually deepens, and after a few days red vessels are seen 
ramifying on the bile-coloured membranes, and the natural hue 
is soon restored. At the same time, corresponding improvement 
takes place in the other symptoms; the pulse becomes fuller 
and less frequent, the sighing ceases, the size of the belly dimi¬ 
nishes, the horse begins to feed, and lies down ; he has, however, 
undergone a most extraordinary reduction in the size of his body, 
if fat prior to the attack: the reduction is more sudden, and 
manifestly greater in this than in any other disease with which 
the horse is affected. 
The urine and faeces during the attack remain unaltered; but 
in the animal’s approach to convalescence the urine has been 
observed, in some cases, of a deep brown or nearly black colour. 
No animal, destitute of a gall-bladder, is compelled to per¬ 
form so great a quantity of labour, nor, with one exception, in 
any degree so rapidly, as the horse ; for the ass and mule w ork 
slowdy, and the stag is only occasionally hunted severely, and 
therefore cannot be considered as equally subjected to the pre¬ 
disposing circumstances of this disease. 
Is the disorganization of the liver in the horse to be considered 
as depending upon a peculiar idiosyncrasy, aided by exces- 
* “ Le saint sacrement, porte dans le Faubourg St. Antoine a Paris, guerit 
en vain la femme La Fosse d’une perte de sang au bout de trois mois en la 
rendant aveugle.”— Voltaire Louis XIV , vol. ii, p. 221, 
