496 Affections of the Bladder 



to the exact nature of its base. For the most part, however, it 

 may be said to consist of certain of the salts of soda, potass, or 

 lime, with a greater or less admixture of what is known as the 

 ammonia-magnesian phosphate, or triple salt. This peculiar 

 morbid condition of the system is one to which all domestic 

 animals are occasionally liable ; but it is so exceedingly common 

 in fattening sheep and lambs, that its special consideration can 

 scarcely fail to be a subject of considerable interest. 



The reasons why these sandy or gravelly deposits of the 

 urine are more common and more serious in sheep than in 

 other animals, will be sufficiently apparent when we consider 

 the peculiar circumstances under which fattening sheep and 

 lambs are placed. A high and stimulating system of feeding, 

 with an abundance of saccharine roots, want of exercise, and 

 often a total abstinence from water, are exactly the conditions 

 likely to produce this tendency to lithic sediments in the urine ; 

 and the peculiar anatomical construction of the urethra of the 

 sheep is such, that deposits of a character which would pass 

 away readily enough in other animals, soon begin to produce 

 the most serious mischief in him. At the extreme point of the 

 penis is a singular structure known as the " vermiform appen- 

 dage," so called on account of its worm-like appearance ; and 

 the urethral outlet is here so extremely small that the slightest 

 calcareous deposit can with difficulty pass through it. When 

 this lithic acid diathesis, so to speak, then is present, the 

 urethra readily becomes choked up with the sediment, the urine 

 is filtered through it only with the greatest difficulty, coming 

 away merely drop by drop, and accompanied with much strain- 

 ing and other manifestations of pain and suffering. If the 

 obstruction is not speedily got rid of, these symptoms rapidly 

 increase in severity, the bladder becomes inordinately distended, 

 its membranes are inflamed, and great constitutional disturbance 

 necessarily follows. The kidneys in turn participate in the 

 inflammation, the blood becomes thoroughly saturated and 

 poisoned with urine, which may be smelt in all the secretions 

 and tissues of the body, and the animal soon sinks under so 

 serious a complication of diseases. Occasionally, also, rupture 

 of the bladder may be added to the list of evils ; but this I have 

 found to be much more rare than might at first sight be 

 expected ; when it does take place, however, I need scarcely 

 add that death is the inevitable result. 



It will thus be seen that what are commonly spoken of as 

 " affections of the bladder in fattening sheep and lambs," are 

 confined almost exclusively to male animals, that is, to wethers 

 and rams, and in reality are not in the first instance affections of 

 the bladder at all ; the bladder is only affected, as it were second- 



