Adenoma has been met with by McFadyean, Johne, Kitt and Bollinger. They hung as pediculated tumors from the surface of the liver, and were in part wedged into its substance displacing the hepatic tissue and vessels. In general they consisted of a dense fibrous stroma with cylindroid and biliary cells in great abundance, sometimes arranged in tubular form. Specimens described by Kitt and Bollinger attained to the size of a man’s head and were stained of a deep green color.
Carcinoma. Casper reports a case of hepatic cancer in the sheep secondary to cancer of the mesentery.
NEOPLASMS IN THE DOG’S LIVER.
Lipoma. Trasbot describes two fatty tumors in the liver of a bitch, one of them as large as an infant’s head. It had a yellowish white color, and had taken the place of the proper hepatic tissue.
Malignant Tumors. These are rather common. Sarcomatous masses with round and fusiform cells in a fibrous stroma; encephaloid with a delicate stroma and large alveoli filled with cells, and having a soft brainlike consistency; carcinoma with dense and thick fibrous stroma and nests of cells in comparatively small numbers; and epithelioma with flattened, cylindroid or other epithelial cells in masses often affecting a tubular aggregation, are seen in different cases. Sometimes apparently primary, they can more commonly be traced to pre-existing centres of the same formation on the course of the portal vein or elsewhere.
Symptoms. A gradual wasting and emaciation with a yellowish pallor of the mucous membranes are characteristic. Trasbot gives the excessive atrophy of the temporal and masseter muscles as pathognomonic. Ascites is a usual complication. Enlargement of the liver, as shown by percussion of the right hypochondrium, and, in case of flaccid abdomen, by manipulation, and attendant signs of tenderness are corroborative. Variability or loss of appetite, and vomiting is not uncommon, and in case of primary or secondary deposits in other organs in the abdomen, thorax or elsewhere, the symptoms resulting from functional derangement of such organ may be found. Treatment is hopeless.
CALCAREOUS NODULES AND DEGENERATIONS OF THE LIVER.
Calcified roundish nodules, in groups, under capsule. Mostly in solipeds. Theories of origin: parasites, microbes, emboli, omphalitis, intestinal disease, biliary obstructions. Calcification of liver with large abdominal aneurisms. Cszoker’s case, Diagnosis and specific treatment impossible.
In the domestic animals in general the liver may become the seat of imperfectly spherical nodules of a white, yellow or brownish white color, varying in size from a millet seed to a pea or hazel nut, and of a gritty consistency and feeling, from the deposition of earthy salts. These may be seen in groups under the proper capsule, the adjacent hepatic tissue being healthy, or atrophied, sclerosed or pigmented. These lesions have been found most abundantly in solipeds.
Pathogenesis. The most varied doctrines have been advanced as to the origin of these lesions. They have been attributed to the previous presence in the liver of linguatula, echinococcus, cœnurus, oxyurus, distoma, and other parasites (Cadeac, Mazanti, Olt, Ostertag, Gripp, Leuckart, Ratz), to glanders, to microbian attacks (Dieckerhoff), to minute embolic infarcts in omphalitis in the foal, or intestinal disease in the adult (Kitt), and to obstructions by the eggs of distomata in the biliary ducts (Galli-Vallerio). It is not improbable that the lesion may be due to any one of these in a specific case, and this may be ascertained by the existence of certain definite features and conditions. Linguatula, echinococcus and cœnurus can only be suspected in districts where these prevail, and a careful examination of the central mass of the nodule should reveal the presence of the indestructible hooklets, as certified for given cases by Olt, Ostertag and Gripp. In case of nematoid worms or distomata, the eggs may possibly be found as in the cases of Villach and Ratz, or the embryos (Mazanti). Or there may be traces of channels formerly hollowed out by the worms in the vicinity of the nodules, as seen by Leuckart. Coincident tumors of the intestinal mucosa from larval nematodes, or aneurism or emboli in the anterior mesenteric artery would corroborate this conclusion. If distomata had started the lesions, the distension of the gall ducts and the thickening of their walls would be likely to indicate their former presence. Glander nodules might be suspected from the absence of a distinct rounded or oval outline, from the lack of a distinct, clear line of demarcation between the nodule and the adjacent liver tissue, and by the manifestation in the periphery of the nodule and around it of free cell proliferation, showing the mode of progression by the invasion of new tissue. If still active, the bacilli should be discoverable in stained scrapings or sections. There should also be distinct indications of the lesions of glanders in the lymph glands of the portal fissure, of the mediastinum, of the submaxillary region and of other parts.