Chronic inflammation of the liver usually involves the entire organ, and may be the result of the acute form, although it exists independently of it. It is a disease very common in the South and West, and is evidently owing to malarial poison, in connection with heat and atmospheric vicissitudes. It is a very insidious disease, and the whole organ may assume a pathological condition before attracting any special attention. The most common symptoms are a disordered stomach, occasional vomiting, a sense of fulness and weight in the right side, irregular bowels, pains in one or both shoulders, unhealthy stools, yellowness of skin, eyes, and urine, a short dry cough, disturbed appetite, febrile exacerbations towards night, and general emaciation. The patient is generally despondent, his temper is irritable and peevish, and he is frequently the prey to the dread of some impending evil. The exercise of his mental faculties is often impossible in a literary or argumentative direction, and the loss of the cherished attribute of manhood is most frequently added to his misery. If the patient be a female, sexual congress becomes to her a revolting union, and her husband's approaches create in her only a feeling of disgust and scorn.

TREATMENT. -- The diet should be regulated, outdoor exercise should be taken, baths liberally used, and chafing liniments applied over the liver; keep the bowels open with leptandrin, or decoction of the plant and give one-tenth of a grain of gelsemium with two grains of quinine every three or four hours, until about twenty doses have been taken. This may be followed by dandelion and blackroot in small doses four or five times a day. An alterative like irisin may also be given. I also most strongly advise my "Restorative Assimilant," "Herbal Ointment," and "Renovating Pills;" to be used about the same as ordered in dyspepsia. The pills, especially, exercise specific control over morbid conditions of the liver, and frequently cure the disease, unaided by other remedies.

It is frequently the case that chronic inflammation of the liver is so complicated that it will not respond to any ordinary treatment. In such cases a careful analysis of the symptoms and general condition of the patient must be made, and the treatment so modified and varied as to suit all the conditions of the case. In these cases it is difficult to designate the required treatment, as each individual case is characterized by its own pathological phenomena, and requires essentially particular treatment. My success in the treatment of these stubborn cases has exceeded even my own anticipations in many instances, and I now like to combat the "bilious" foe with my herbal weapons -- and success usually crowns my efforts. Those who wish to consult me are referred to page 390.