The gall-bladder is usually present in mammals, but is wanting in the odd-toed ungulates (Perissodactyla) and Procavia (Hyrax). In the giraffe it may be absent or present. The cetacea and a few rodents are also without it. In the otter the same curious network of bile ducts already recorded in the reptiles is seen (see P. H. Burne, _Proc. Anat. Soc., Journ. Anat. and Phys_. vol. 33, p. xi.). (F. G. P.) SURGERY OF LIVER AND GALL-BLADDER.--Exposed as it is in the upper part of the abdomen, and being somewhat friable, the human liver is often torn or ruptured by blows or kicks, and, the large blood-vessels being thus laid open, fatal haemorrhage into the belly-cavity may take place. The individual becomes faint, and the faintness keeps on increasing; and there are pain and tenderness in the liver-region. The right thing to do is to open the belly in the middle line, search for a wound in the liver and treat it by deep sutures, or by plugging it with gauze. _Cirrhosis of the Liver._--As the result of chronic irritation of the liver increased supplies of blood pass to it, and if the irritation is unduly prolonged inflammation is the result. The commonest causes of this chronic hepatitis are alcoholism and syphilis. The new fibrous tissue which is developed throughout the liver, as the result of the chronic inflammation, causes general enlargement of the liver with, perhaps, nausea, vomiting and jaundice. Later the new fibrous tissue undergoes contraction and the liver becomes smaller than natural. Blood then finds difficulty in passing through it, and, as a result, dropsy occurs in the belly (ascites). This may be relieved by tapping the cavity with a small hollow needle (Southey's trocar), or by passing into it a large sharp-pointed tube. This relieves the dropsy, but it does not cure the condition on which the dropsy depends. A surgical operation is sometimes undertaken with success for enabling the engorged veins to empty themselves into the blood-stream in a manner so as to avoid the liver-route. _Inflammation of the Liver_ (hepatitis) may also be caused by an attack of micro-organisms which have reached it through the veins coming from the large intestine, or through the main arteries. There are, of course, as the result, pain and tenderness, and there is often jaundice. The case should be treated by rest in bed, fomentations, calomel and saline aperients. But when the hepatitis is of septic origin, suppuration is likely to occur, the result being an hepatic abscess.