BLOOD IN THE URINE. 721 



tubes of the glands or of the great conduits, the ureters. How- 

 ever, the chief points of difference usually observable are not 

 invariably sufficiently diagnostic of the exact seat of the 

 hairaorrhage. 



The causes of hiematuria are in the horse largely mechanical, 

 the result of injury received either by direct violence inflicted 

 in the region of the kidney, or following over-exertion or 

 excessive work. It may accompany structural change of the 

 gland, irritatioft set up by calculi either in the kidney or some 

 other part of the urinary passage, or it may only exhibit itself 

 as a symptom of a general or constitutional disturbance or 

 disease. Regarded as a symptom, hematuria may thus be 

 indicative of several very different conditions in which dis- 

 turbance of normal functions or more serious structural 

 changes are the cause of this alteration in the character of 

 the urine. 



h. Urine Containing Pus and Mucus. — Both of these 

 organic substances are met with in the urine of the horse in 

 larger quantities than is imagined. In health the latter mate- 

 rial is a common constituent, while the former, even where no 

 disease is suspected, is not uncommon. To urine, after being 

 allowed to settle in some convenient vessel, mucus gives a 

 slightly flocculent but transparent cloud ; while pus, settling 

 at the bottom of the vessel, gives an opaque yellowish deposit, 

 Hable to be disturbed on slight movement. Both these con- 

 ditions are determined by microscopic and chemical examina- 

 tion. Although clinically interesting, neither are such serious 

 conditions as some others which we have noticed. It is highly 

 probable that both conditions, particularly the presence of 

 pus, are more common in the female than the male ; and 

 although the existence of pus in large quantities is to be 

 regarded with suspicion, and the case watched with care, its 

 presence may be unassociated with much obvious structural 

 change. 



Thus it is that, like the discharge of blood with the urine, 

 pus may continue to exist without our being able certainly to 

 determine whether the formed elements of the secretion are 

 passing off from the mucous membrane by some particular 

 change, or are shed steadily from a raw and abraded surface, 

 or the cavity of an abscess. 



46 



