Symptomatic. Causes: Mechanical obstruction of bile duct, gall-stones,
hydatids, distomata, extraneous bodies, inflammation, stricture,
obliteration, absence, ulceration, spasm, tumor, enlarged lymph
glands, gastric tumors, pancreatic, kidney or omental tumor, aneurism,
fæcal accumulation, pregnancy, ovarian tumor: Without mechanical
obstruction, ptomaines and toxins, animal venoms, mineral poisons,
hepatic atrophy, fear, other emotions, cerebral concussion, imperfect
oxidation, excess of bile, hepatic inflammation, constipation and
reabsorption of bile, experimental jaundice, balance of tension in
gall ducts and blood vessels, duodenitis, compression of aorta,
hæmatoidin and bilirubin, destruction of blood globules by hydroæmia,
taurocholate of soda, chloroform, ether, freezing, heat, electricity,
alkalies, nitrites. Hæmoglobin: Its solubility in horse. Bile acids
and blood pigment. Summary of causes. Gravity of icterus. Symptoms:
Coloration, yellow, orange, brown, of tissues and secretions: Tests,
staining white paper, Gmelin’s test, nitric and sulphuric acids,
rainbow hues: Pettenkofer’s test for bile acids, syrup and sulphuric
acid, dark violet: Stranburg’s test syrupy paper and sulphuric acid,
dark violet; clay colored fœtid stools; gravity.
The terms icterus and jaundice are applied to a yellowness of the
mucosæ, urine, skin and tissues caused by the presence in them of the
coloring matters of bile. The condition is a symptom of many different
affections rather than a disease _per se_, yet the phenomenon is so
characteristic that it has been hitherto accorded a special place and
article in systematic works.
Jaundice is either associated with _mechanical obstruction of the bile
duct_ or ducts, or it is _independent of such obstruction_. The
following enumeration of its causes slightly modified from Murchison, is
equally applicable to the lower animals as to man:
A. Jaundice From Mechanical Obstruction of the Bile Duct.
_I. Obstruction by foreign bodies within the duct_: