the process of separating the nutritious from the innutritious parts of the food, and facilitates the escape of the fæcal matters. It also acts chemically upon the various substances which are devoured by the animal, and is the chief agent in neutralizing the acidity which some of these would otherwise create. The liver of the pig has four distinct lobes.
THE SPLEEN.
In the hog the spleen is very long, and nearly of a uniform breadth and thickness throughout its whole extent. It lies on the left side of the abdomen, and is attached to the stomach by the folds of the epiploön. Its texture is almost like that of a sponge in appearance, consisting of innumerable cells of every size and form, yet it is firm to the touch. In color it is a dark, deep reddish brown.
There has been much dispute as to the functions and use of this organ. Some persons, arguing from its situation, contend that it is a powerful agent in the process of digestion; but this is strongly negatived by the fact, that it has been removed from some animals which have existed for a considerable time afterwards, without apparent injury to that function. Others again, and with more probability, assume that it has to do with the coloring and conversion of the chyle into blood as it passes through the mesentery, where it becomes mixed with the red coagulable fluid furnished by the spleen. But with these physiological questions we have at present nothing to do: our purpose is simply to consider it with a view to understanding and treating those diseases of which it is not unfrequently the seat. Little attention has hitherto been paid to them, probably from their symptoms being somewhat obscure; but nevertheless, different morbid affections of the spleen are by no means uncommon among the lower domesticated animals. This viscus is often ruptured, distended with blood, inflamed, or softened, from the effects of different causes, but chiefly of damp, heat, or foul air.
SPLENITIS.
Swine suffering under this malady are restless and debilitated, shun their companions, and bury themselves in the litter. There is loss of appetite and excessive thirst, so excessive that they will drink up any thing that comes in their way, no matter how filthy. The respiration is short; they cough, vomit, grind the teeth, and foam at the mouth; the groin is wrinkled, and of a pale brownish hue, and the skin of the throat, chest, and belly, (which latter is hard and tucked up,) is tinged with black.
The remedies are copious blood-letting, gentle purgatives, as Epsom or Glauber's salts, followed up by cooling medicines. Cold
