INFLUENZA IN HOESES. 247 



The comparatively uou-volatile disinfectants, sncb as i^ermanganate of 

 potasb, chloride of lime, bromo-cliloralum, and carbolic acid, may be 

 used for the sohd structures of the stable, drains, manure, and the like, 

 while sulphurous acid is above all to be commended for disinfection of 

 the air. This agent, when used frequently and in small amount, so as 

 to be non-irritating, has the double advantage of soothing and givuug 

 tone to the diseased mucous membrane, and of destroying organic germs, 

 including perhaps the morbific elements in the respiratory organs. 



DR. CALDWELL'S ANALYSIS OF THE UEINE. 



The following analysis, conducted by my colleague. Dr. Caldwell, is 

 tbat of the urine of a horse in the last stages of influenza, and which 

 proved on i^ost-mortem examination to have a large clot occupying the 

 right ventricle and firmly attached to the lower surface of the tricuspid 

 valve. 



The characters are those of highly febrile urine. The acidity no doubt 

 results from the fact that the animal had been able to assimilate nothing 

 for some days, but was consuming his own tissues to sustain the vital 

 functions. The density, 1.08, is double that of the healthy horse's urine, 

 1.04. The urea, 4.81 per cent, is at least four times the amount found 

 by Yon Bibra in healthy equine urine, 0.83 to 1.24, and nearly double 

 that found by Dr. Marcet in a case of rinderpest in a cow, 2.472. The 

 extraordiiary waste of tissue necessary to produce this amount goes 

 far to explain the extreme weakness which characterizes the disease. 

 This was an extreme case, it is true, yet the instance mentioned in the 

 report of two non-fatal cases having lost each 7k pounds daily, is another 

 illustration of this general tendency of the disease. The presence of 

 albumer is but of secondary significance, as it is a- constant constituent 

 of urine in pneumonia, bronchitis, and other inflammatory affections. 



The li([uid had a sizy consistency, as is commonly the case in albu- 

 minous eiuine urine, and poured like a dense oil from one vessel into 

 another. I fonnd no specimen of influenza urine from which albumen 

 was entirdy absent, though often only present in traces, and in one in- 

 stance a sck mare, on the day before she died, passed it as a solid mass 

 like a thinjelly and streaked with blood. 



Chemicvl Laboratory, Coi-nell Universiti/, December '24, 1872. 

 Dizxt Sn: : Tha following are the results of the cliemical examination of the sample 

 of hoise-urin) tbat yon left with nie : 



Ee-artion , Acid. 



Spectic gravity 1. 08 



Albimeu, per ceut...^ 0.35 



Urex, per cent 4.81 



Toal dry substance, per cent 8. 5 



Asi, per cent 1. 04 



Pbsphoric acid, per cent 0.13 



IMETIIOD OF ^VXALYSIS. 



Albumeyi. — This was precipitated by digestion of a vrcighed quantity of "dhe urine at 

 30^ C, and the addition of a drop or two of acetic acid ; the precipitate was collected 

 n a dried and weighed filter, washed with hot water, dried at 100° C, and weighed. 

 Urea. — The albumen was precipitated from a weighed quantity of the urine, the 

 iltrat^ made up to 500'"'^ to 50':'' of this liquid, 25'^'= of a mixture of saturated solutions 

 )f baric nitrate and hydrate added, and the urea was estimated in the filtrate from the 

 precipitate by these re-agents, according to Liebig's volumetric method, with a stan- 



