262 DISORGANIZATION OF THE LIVER, &C. 
clystered night and morning, if the faeces are not naturally 
evacuated. As it was scarcely possible to get her to eat any 
thing, she was not restricted to diet in any other way than 
that the lighter the food she could be enticed to eat the better; 
and, if she would not of herself take food sufficient, she was still 
to be supported with gruel. 
5th .—The groom called upon me this morning, to say that 
yesterday morning the mare began to purge, and that the 
yellow colour of the membrane of the nose and eyelids was 
nearly gone; in other respects he thought the mare nearly in 
the same state as I saw her; he also said, that the first ball 
was given in the evening of the 3d, and next morning she was 
purging, notwithstanding which he gave her another ball yes¬ 
terday, and to-day the purging has ceased. Whether, there¬ 
fore, the purging was an effort of nature or the result of the 
small quantity of medicine that had been taken, will admit of 
much doubt; and I am disposed to give nature the merit. A 
ball to be given every other day. It will be needless to detail 
this case further: suffice it to say, that the yellowness of the 
membrane entirely disappeared in a week, and was succeeded by 
a pale colour; and in other respects she was sometimes thought 
to be better, at others worse, till March 29th, when she died. 
For some time before her death, I considered it very likely that 
she had water in the abdomen, as the result of the liver affection; 
but not possessing the tactus eruditus, as laid down by your 
correspondent, Mr. Cartwright, I could not detect water by 
percussion of the abdomen ; and believing that ascites often 
exists without the premonitory symptoms by which he considers 
it to be known; and believing also that the symptoms he 
has described as characterizing dropsy, such as pawing, rum¬ 
bling of the belly, looking to the flanks, &c., may exist as ma¬ 
nifesting other diseases, I was obliged to content myself with 
a conjecture, that it was probable there was water in the abdo¬ 
men. It is worthy of remark, that, after the purging above 
mentioned had ceased, the bowels acted in a most perfect 
manner: her food was light—gruel, mashes, and a little pulled 
grass; her dung moist, and well digested. 
Post-mortem examination .—Upon opening the abdomen it was 
found to contain several gallons of red serous fluid. The whole 
of the peritoneum was thickened, and almost of a black colour. 
The peritoneal coat of the colon and ccecum exhibited the same 
appearance, and was, indeed, in some parts quite granulated. 
The inner coat of these intestines was perfectly natural in appear¬ 
ance. The liver was very much enlarged, and of an oblong glo¬ 
bular shape. Its peritoneal covering could easily be peeled off; 
