SUPPRESSION OF UEINE. 35 



The secretion of urine may be totally arrested, as in 

 nephritis, especially due to an overdose of cantharides or 

 other potent diuretics. Again, in febrile disorders, the urine 

 becomes very scanty and acrid. It induces irritation of the 

 urinary passages, and is discharged in drops. 



When there is true suppression of urine, symptoms of 

 blood poisoning uraemia occur. There are instances in 

 which the elements of urine are discharged by other organs, 

 and Bernard and Barreswil detected salts of ammonia in the 

 intestinal secretion of animals after extirpation of the 

 kidneys. So long as this vicarious discharge kept up, the 

 poisonous effects of urea in the blood were not manifest. 

 Shivering fits, dulness, laboured breathing, vomiting in dogs, 

 diarrhoea, and fetid exhalations from skin and lungs, are 

 characteristic symptoms of severe forms of this disorder. 

 Death speedily results if treatment is not beneficial. 



Treatment depends on the cause of the checked discharge 

 or suppressed secretion. Warm baths in the smaller ani- 

 mals, mucilaginous draughts, and a brisk purgative, are 

 useful remedies. Diuretics are of great service when the 

 secretion of urine is checked without the existence of 

 nephritis. Spirits of nitric ether, in considerable doses, 

 nitre, and digitalis, are much to be relied upon. There are 

 some cases which prove incurable, and there are many which 

 depend on mechanical causes which the surgeon overcomes. 

 These we shall consider under the next head. 



KETENTION OF UEINE. 



The immediate causes of retention are numerous. Hert- 

 wig has enumerated them as follows : 1. Inflammation of 

 the neck of the bladder, or of the urethra ; 2. Paralysis of 

 the bladder, or spasm of its neck; 3. Calculi or polypi in 

 the neck of the bladder, enlarged prostate or other produc- 



