Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/1021

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it may be impregnated with more and more of the urine, &c, of the animal, and be made richer for the fields. It is not to be doubted but the manure is greatly improved by this ; but the damage done to the horfe by it is greatly over- proportioned to the benefit. The heat which the dung acquires, by thus lying together, fpoils the feet of the creature, and makes it unfit for any fervice, and oe'eafions many diftem- pers, which are ignorantly continued and increafed by the continual addition of heat in the fermenting dung, till at length the horfc periflies. LlTUITES, a name given to the ftones formed in the IituuS'

fliell. See Lituitus, infra. LITUUS, in natural hiftory, a name given to a genus of fhells of the clafsof thepolythalamii, or thofe which confift of feveral concamerations or chambers, parted from one another by fhelly diaphragms, and communicating with one another by means of a fiphunculus, which runs through the whole length of the fliell. To this general character of the clafs, it is to be added, that the lituus is always a conic fliell, run- ning in a ftrait line from the mouth, through a great part of the length, and from the end of this ftrait part to the extremity, twilling into the fliape of a cornu ammonis, or fpiral fliell of that kind.

It is thus called from its refembling the inftrument called lituus among the antients. The ftony matter often found caft in this fliell, and refembling all its lineaments, is called by authors Htuitcs, as thofe ftones formed in the pecten pefiimtesy and thofe in the echini marini echinites. Breynius de Polythalamiis. LIVE, at fea, is ufed to fignify the fame, as being able to en- dure the fea, without overfetting or fuflering any damage ; thus, they fay of a boat, that it will live in any fea ; that is, it will endure, or bear with, any fea. J-AVE caves, in mining, a phrafe ufed by many people, to ex- prefs fuch caverns in the earth as have but little communi- cation with the external air, and are found to abound with mineral productions. The workers in the lead mines on Mendip hills, diftinguifli the numerous caverns in thofe . places into the live or quick caves, and the dead caves ; the latter are fuch as admit the air into them two or three ways, and are barren of any thing valuable ; the others have only onepaflage, and that but narrow and winding, and generally lie at great depths. Thefe abound in numerous elegant productions. They almoft always contain ore in fome form or other, and ufually abound in elegant fpars. Mr. Beaumont mentions one of thefe in the Philofophical Tfanf- actions, which lay at thirty-five fathom perpendicular depth, in which there was found a fine liver coloured earth, of the nature of bole armenic, which in many places fhoot up in a wonderful manner into a fort of fpires of the height of three or four inches, formed with ridges and furrows, and ufually covered with fpar at the top ; fometimes all the way down, to the bed of earth. Phil. Tranf. N 1 129. LIVER \Ctycl.)~ *-Tjhofe things which increafe or leflen the proportion of the weight of the heart to the weight of the body, do at the fame time leflen or increafe the proportion of the weight of the liver to the weight of the heart. (See Heart.) And confequently, when an animal grows fat from much food, much fleeg and little exercife, its heart leflens, and its liver increafes ; and, on the contrary, when an animal grows lean from tittle food, little fleep and much exercife, its heart increafes and its liver leflens. When the . weight of the heart is too little for the weight of the body, the liver enlarges beyond its juft magnitude, and preffes too much on the contiguous parts, particularly on the fiomach, interlines, and diaphragm, and by the prcflure leflens the capacities of the ftornach, interlines, and thorax; whence the appetite grows lefs, the pcrifHiitic motion lefs, and re- spiration more difficult and uneaiy. Dr. Robinfons Difl'. on the Food, &c. of Hum. Bod.

The weight of the liver in proportion to the quantity of blood, is lefs at a medium in wild beafts than in tame, and in round fifli than in flat fiih.. Ibid. p. 111. In moft chronical difeafes the liver is larger than in health, as has been found by directions. And it fcems probable, that die weight of the heart, and quantity of blood, in thofe diftempers, are both lefs than in health; moft chronical dif eafes arifing from too much food and too little exercife, leflen the weight of the heart and quantity of blood, but in- creafe the liver. Hence, when this part is grown too large by intemperance and inactivity, it may be leflened and brought to a healthful magnitude by temperance and exer- cife. It may indeed alfo be emptied by art, but nothing can prevent its filling again, and confequently fecure good and conftant health, but an exact diet and exercife. Thus purging and vomiting may feflcn the liver, but cannot pre- vent its increasing again, (o long as perfons live too fully and ufe too little exercife. Ibid. p. 119. Each lobule of the liver confifts of an external, friable, yel- lowifh-red cortical fubftance, and of an internal foft, pul- pous, medullary part. The medullary fubftance is the pulpy extremities of the biliary duets, proceeding from ihe cor- tical part. See Mr. Ferrm in Hift. de TAcad. di gcienc, 1733. Sum.. Vol, I.

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The blood in the hepatic artery has bile fecreted from it, anr! its remaining blood is conveyed by veins into the vena por- tarum, where a fecorid fecretion is made from it. Befides; the fecretion of bile made from the hepatic artery and vena portarum, Mr. Ferren has feen biliary duels coming from the left ligament of the liver, the diaphragm coats of the gall bladder, and part of the vena cava ; all which are vifi- ble upon injefling coloured liquors into the trunks of the hepatic dufts. The bile is equally bitter and ftrong in the fmalleft biliary canals, as in the larger trunks. The thick yellow bile, fometimes found in the trunks, being the cyftic bile, remounting from the common into the hepatic duft; on which account the hepatic is often larger than the com- mon dufl. The lymphatic veffels may be traced to the ex- treme branches of the vena portarum, and to the biliary dufts, by injecting liquors into the larger trunks of the ex- ternal lymphatics. Ferren ubi fupra. . The liver in fillies, is generally very large in proportion to the reft of the body, and is generally placed in the left fide of the abdomen ; but this is not the cafe in all. In figure and proportion it differs greatly in the different kinds ; it is in fome fimple, and undivided, as in the pleuronecti, pe- tromyza, falmons, fcV. In fome it is divided into two lobes, as in pearch and moft of the cartilaginous kinds. As alfo in the torpedo, the fquali, the lamia;, the perilophus, the paftinacha of authors, the clupeae, the eels, the flroma- teus of Rondeletius, the dolphins, and fome of the ligyri. In fome it is divided into three lobes, as in the cyprini, fome of thegadi, the fcorpsna, the rays, the fquatina, the tunny, the gafterofteusj and the faber, or bolen doree. ■Arteii Ichthyol.

In regard to proportion; it is in fome fifh much ihorter than the abdomen ; as in pearch, dupes, ofmari, coregones, fal- mons, efoces, and the greater part of fifties. In fome it is nearly of the fame length with the abdomen, as in the gaf- terofteusj C5V. The gall bladder, which is an appendage to the liver, is never wanting in any kind of fifti, bet it is very differently fituated in the different kinds. In the cartilaginous fifties, it is immerfed in the f.:bftance of the liver ; in other fifh; it fometimes adheres clofely to the lower part of it, as in the efoces, cyprini, pearch, and the greater part of fillies. In others it is hung to the liver . by a long neck, as in tbemursena, conger and ammodytcs.

Abfcefs in the Liver. Abfceffes in the liver have been ufually accounted mortal, and wholly beyond the reach of remedy j we have, however* in the hiftory of the academy of Paris, an accountof a very remarkable one, perfectly cured by Mr. Soul- ier, a furgeon of Montpelier; in the following manner. The patient was a young gentleman of about fourteen, who had contracted a violent fever, by putting his feet while very hot into fome cold water. The confequence of this fever was a large tumor in the middle of the epigaftric region, which raifed the xiphoide cartilage, and pufticd.it two inches out of its place, and terminated below, two inches under the navel. The common means failing to do any fervice, the patient was fent to Montpelier, where the before- mentioned furgeon opened the tumor ; on this the liver was found abfeeffed in its anterior or convex part, and a cavity was found there capable of receiving half a hen's egg, and there iffued out of it on a gentle prefl'ure a thick andHoody, fometimes a ycllowifh bitter and inflammable matter. This laft was true bile, and both with this and with the other difcharge, there always came away fmall portions of the fub- ftance of the liver, and the fmall extremities of numbers of veffels might be perceived, fome fanguineous, fome bilious. The great buiinefs for the furgeon, in this cafe, was the getting the matter out of the abfcefs, the preventing its re- maining in the iubftance of the liver, or being again received into the blood. For this purpofe, Mr. Souillcr invented a particular canula, made very foft at the end, where it was to be palled into the liver, and having there fix lateral holes capable of receiving the matter. This canula was of filver, and under its other end there was placed a thin plate of lead, to receive the matter which was difcharged through it, which would otherwife have excoriated any part on which it fell. The abfcefs, which was, by this means, always kept perfectly clean, foon began to heal ; the fever went oft' by degrees, the patient every day grew into a better ftate; and finally, the wound was cicatrized, and all perfectly cured in a very fhort time. Hift. Acad. Par. 1730. One thing obfervable in the courfe of the cure, was the refutation of a common opinion, that the bile is neither bitter nor coloured, till it gets into the gall bladder ; for, in this cafe, it was difcharged yellow and bitter from the wounded veffels of the liver.

Liver, in antiquity, was much ufed in divination. See the article Hepatoscopia.

LlvER-worr. See the article Lichen.

LIVERYMEN, (Cycl.) in natural hiftory, a name given by authors to a fort of caterpillars, remarkable for their variety of colours. Thefe are of that clafs of caterpillars, whicii live in communities, and build themfelves nctts to defend them from the injuries of the weather. Thefe may be ranked among the proceflionary kinds, always following one 15 R ano-