[Footnote 26: It has just been said that the blood contained a large amount of white blood corpuscles. This reminds me of a fact that I have omitted to mention--namely, that in a case of severe jaundice from suppression, in consequence of cirrhosis of the liver, I found that the blood possessed a very treacle-like aspect. The serum was of a dingy yellow hue, and felt somewhat sticky to the fingers. Under the microscope the blood corpuscles were found to be large, and flabby, had a great tendency to adhere together by the edges, and become flattened on the sides whenever they came in contact. Moreover, the corpuscles looked as if they had no distinct cell-wall; some, and that too, in the freshly drawn blood, gave off buds, others split into two, each half when separate looking like a distinct blood corpuscle. In fact, the blood looked more as if it had been acted upon by some powerful chemical agent than anything else. I again examined it after the death of the patient, and found it presented all the above characters in a still more marked degree. To the naked eye it had a viscid, tarry appearance.] These results rather militate against the theory of the bile being re-absorbed, in an unchanged state, into the circulation, after the completion of the digestive process. {101} TREATMENT OF JAUNDICE. After what has been said regarding the pathology of jaundice, I need scarcely remark that the treatment must vary according to the kind of disorder we have to deal with. A line of treatment found to be beneficial in one case of jaundice, might prove very hurtful in another. For, as has been shown in the foregoing pages, jaundice from suppression, and jaundice from obstruction, are, it might be said, two entirely different diseases, with only the symptoms of yellow skin, high-coloured urine, and pipe-clay stools in common. The success of our treatment will therefore depend on our powers of diagnosis. The general principles upon which the treatment of jaundice must be founded are as follows:--