ENLARGEMENT OF THE SPLEEN IN TIIE HORSE. 213 
commencement of the colon, the hand is at perfect liberty, when 
turning it over on the left side, the spleen, if enlarged to the 
sizes subsequently described, may be very distinctly felt. An¬ 
other thing I would beg leave to suggest is, that as there is a 
great anxiety felt by breeders and gentlemen to ascertain whether 
mares are in foal, before it can be distinguished by any external 
appearances, or before the foetus has left the cavity of the pelvis, 
by passing the arm up in the same gentle manner, this may be 
felt without incurring the least risk of causing abortion or any 
other ill consequence. 
CASE I. 
The first case of enlarged spleen which came under my notice 
was in a race-horse, the property of George Leach, Esq., of 
Spichweek, near Ashburton: he had been ill for some time, under 
the care of several veterinarians, all of whom were unacquainted 
with the nature of his disease. When I first saw him, in June, 
his winter-coat was still hanging in patches on him, his skin 
very dry and hide-bound, pulse beating twenty-eight in a minute, 
and intermitting every third stroke; urine dark-coloured, and full 
of mucus, and similar in appearance to train oil; his bowels in a 
very disordered state, continually voiding large quantities of 
mucus, not in the manner horses do after having been hard rid¬ 
den, or when under the influence of fever, but separately, and 
more of a jelly-like consistence. 
I commenced my treatment by slightly purging him, which 
brought off a great quantity of mucus; but a few days after 
the physic had set, the mucus was again voided as before. I 
then gave him opium 3ss, calomel 3j, for eight days succes¬ 
sively, which brought his bowels into a regular state ; but his 
urine remained unaltered. In consequence of the dark colour 
and turbid state of the urine, I passed my arm up the rectum, 
to ascertain if there was any enlargement of the kidneys, and 
distinctly felt the spleen, which w'as of a very unusual size. 
Soon after he died. On a post-mortem examination, the liver 
was found in a very decayed state; the spleen weighed fifteen 
pounds, and measured nearly three feet in length. 
CASE II. 
The second was in Clarence, a first-rate hunter, belonging to 
J. M. Woollcombe, Esq. of Ashbury, near Okehampton, whose 
spleen weighed fourteen pounds and a half, and his liver was in 
a highly decayed state. He was subject to inflammatory af¬ 
fections, for which he frequently lost great quantities of blood : 
VOL. V. G g 
