Inflammation of the liver may terminate in suppuration, and the formation of one or more abscesses, which sotnotiines attain a very large size in this organ, protrude externally, and even burst and dis charge their contents through an opening in the skin.
Acute inflammation may be produced in the liver by any of the influences which give rise to it in other organs; but while the lungs are more subject to this affection in cold climates, the liver is especially liable to it in hot countries.
Chronic hepatitis is indicated by the presence, in a leas violent degree, of tnany of the symptoms which attend the acute disease. Thus, dull pain or sense of weight in the right aide, with some degree of tenderness in the same situation, pain in the right shoulder, slight jaundice or sallowness of the skin, and disorder of the stomach and digestive organs generally, are the most constant signs. It is frequently difficult to distinguish mere chronic+ inflammation of the liver without enlargement from some disordered states of the stomach and bowels, which sympathise so much with it, and hence has arisen the popular error of designating any chronic disorder of the digestive organs "a liver complaint." We cannot be surprised at this sympathy between the liver, stomach, and bowels, and other viscera of the abdomen in disease, since we know that they are all engaged in one great function —digestion ; and are in the healthy state associated together in their action by a natural sympathy for the purpose of co-operation in that function. A structural result of the chronic inflammation of the liver is the deposit of fibrinous matter in its capsular structure, and the production of the diseased state called cirrhosis. This is frequently brought on by the abuse of alcoholic beverages, and has got the name of " gm liver." Increased secretion of bile. The function of the liver is increased by exposure to heat, and there is evidently a relation between the function performed by the lungs and that of the liver. Aa the tomer is diminished, the latter is increased. This occurs from exposure to heat, and is especially seen in the case of Europeans exposed to the heat of tropical climates, or in Use hot weather of temperate climates. An increased secretion of bile is attended with an increased action of the bowels, called " bilious diarrhoea." Such increased secretion of bile is attended with congestion, which may terminate in inflammation of the liver, which is attended with a diminution of the biliary secretion.
Various causes may produce a suspension of the. processes by which the bile is thrown out of the liver. When this occurs, the bile is absent from the intestinal excretions, and being taken up into the blood produces jaundice. [JAUNDICE.] The liver is very apt to become enlarged by chronic inflammation, and then can be felt externally. Or such changes may be produced in it by hypertrophy or atrophy of one or more of the tissues composing it, or by the formation of a new tissue, that the passage of the blood through it is impeded, and dropsy of the abdomen (ascites) is the result ; this effect however is sometimes a consequence of the chronic inflammation of the liver having extended to the whole lining mem brane of the abdominal cavity.
Of the structural diseases, not inflammatory in their nature, some, as scrofulous tubercles, are rarely met with in the liver, others, as carcinoma, are more frequent in it than in most other internal organs, except the intestinal canal. There are no certain means of ascertaining the presence of these diseases in the liver, until the tumours which they form attain such a size as to be felt externally; though it should be suspected, when the general states of the body marking the carcino matous and tubercular diathesis exist, and still more when these diseases are known to be present in other parts, if at the same time there are marks of irritation and disturbed action of the liver.
The "fatty liver" is a frequent attendant on pulmonary phtlsisis : it cannot be recognised by any signs during life.
The liver in man, as in many animals, particularly the sheep, is, as we have said, subject to become the seat of parasitic living creatures hydatids. These are generally contained in great numbers in a firm general cyst, which not uncommonly protrudes externally, and bursts, or is opened by a lancet, when numerous pellucid bladder-like bodies of different sizes, floating in a transparent fluid, escape.
The treatment of diseases of the liver is regulated by the general principles according to which the cure of diseases in other parts is attempted, and will of course vary with the nature of the particular affection requiring it. •