SPLENIC HYPERTROPHY IN SWINE.
Causes. This disease appears to be rather frequent in pigs, in connection with high feeding, and more particularly with leucocythæmia and lymphadenoma. It is further a complication of tuberculosis and of neoplasms located in the spleen, and of hepatic, cardiac and pulmonary disorder.
Lesions. In leucocythæmia there is general enlargement of the spleen, and especially of the Paccinian bodies which may attain the size of a pea (Leisering, Fürstenberg, Bollinger, Siedamgrotzky, Röll, Ellinger). The total weight of the organ may attain to 5 lbs. (Mathieu), or 13 lbs. (Goubaux). In a remarkable case recorded by Zell, the organ measured 30 inches in its longest circumference and 20 inches in its shortest. It had an enormous thickening of the capsule and trabeculæ which enclosed softened contents in a state of fatty degeneration.
Symptoms are wanting, as most of the observed cases were only discovered after the animal had been killed for pork.