33 
AMERICAN VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
HYPERTROPHY OF THE LIVER. 
An enlarged liver of a horse was sent to ns for examination by 
Mr. Eugene Burget, a student of the College, who has a large 
number of horses under his care. The gentleman gives the fol- 
lowing history of the case : The subject was a brown gelding, nine 
years old, and about sixteen hands high. On the morning of the 
thirteenth of February was sent to work, apparently as well as 
usual; worked in a truck during the day, but was duller than us¬ 
ual, and needed constant urging to keep him at his work ; was 
noticed to stagger several times, and once nearly fell forward on 
his head ; at noon ate his customary feed of oats, but at night and 
the ensuing morning refused to feed or work, and was sent home 
by the man who had hired him; during the day he refused all 
food, appeared dull, and stood perfectly quiet in his stall ; noth¬ 
ing wrong was observed about him, except that the urine voided 
was very highly colored. This animal had been subject to re¬ 
peated attacks of colic, once or twice a month, for over a year. 
The next morning he was found cast in his stall, making desper¬ 
ate attempts to get up. When dragged out on the stable floor he 
suddenly died. Post-mortem examination was made three hours 
after death. Rigor mortis was well marked, and the body ema¬ 
ciated. On opening the abdominal cavity, a light straw-colored 
fluid escaped at first, which grew darker until it consisted almost 
entirely of blood; in all about twelve gallons escaped. The mes¬ 
entery throughout was of a deep yellowish tinge and covered in 
many places by fibrinous deposits. The lungs were anaemic and 
the cavities of the heart were empty ; the kidneys were enlarged, 
engorged and softened, and contained high colored urine in the 
hilus. 
The liver was greatly enlarged and weighed fifty-nine pounds. 
Viewed as a whole, it was a huge, ill-shapen mass, very dark 
colored, with irregular, thick borders; at the superior border of 
the left lobe a large rent was present, with a huge mass of coagu¬ 
lated blood about it; the whole structure was softened and the 
entire posterior surface of the liver was separated by a large clot 
from Glisson’s capsule, which was much thickened ; in some 
