[p. 279]
hiccup of a spasmodic nature, jaundice, bile intense, the whole
body tinged with bile. But if it appear before the seventh
day, it proves fatal in many cases.
But those who have escaped a fatal termination, either by a
hemorrhage, or a rapid discharge from the bowels of bilious
matters, or from frequent discharges of intense urine, in these
cases, after three weeks, the liver is converted into a purulent
abscess. But if it pass considerably this period without an
abscess, it ends inevitably in dropsy; the patients are thirsty,
drink little, are dried in body, lose fat; there is a desire for
acids, and an insensibility to taste.
Autumn engenders this affection, along with the indigestion
produced by much summer-fruit and multifarious food. Of
all ages, the adult is most subject to it.
CHAPTER VIII. ON THE ACUTE DISEASE OF THE VENA CAVA
FROM the portæ of the liver, there passes a wide vein
through
the space intermediate between its extremities, which, being
always divided into slender and more numerous branches, is
distributed at last all over the liver in vessels imperceptible to
the sight; and with their extremities anastomose the extremities
of other veins, which, at first, are slender and numerous,
grow larger and fewer in number, and, at last, they are collected
into one large vein; hence, having become two by
division, these pass through the liver. The upper one, then,
having passed through the first lobe, appears on its convex
side; then, having passed the diaphragm, it is inserted into the
heart: this is called the vena cava. The other, having passed
through the lower lobe, the fifth, to its concave side, makes its
