CYSTITIS — INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. 735 



are likely to give relief earlier than any other line of treatment. 

 Here, also, local soothing, through the employment of blankets 

 wrung from plain or medicated hot water, may be carried out 

 Avith advantage. 



Although active and severe purgation is not to be recom- 

 mended in any form of inflammatory action of the urinary 

 organs, a gentle excitation of the normal intestinal action is 

 always desirable, and is best secured by a moderate dose of 

 aloes with a little calomel and gentian, while a soluble condi- 

 tion may be maintained by allowing linseed-oil with the food, 

 or full doses of sulphate of soda in the water, gruel, or linseed- 

 tea allowed for drink. 



Chronic cases of cystic disease, and particularly when of a 

 catarrhal character, are probably more successfully treated by 

 a rather tonic system of management. Moderate doses of one 

 of the mineral acids with some preparation of iron, as the 

 sulphate or carbonate, alternated with sulphate of magnesia 

 and sulphuric acid, and continued daily for a week or more, 

 will generally be productive of better results than more active 

 treatment and the use of lowering remedies. Hyoscyamus 

 extract, copaiba, infusion of buchu and bearberry leaves have, 

 by those who have tried them, been sj)oken of as useful agents 

 in allaying the irritability attendant on chronic catarrhal con- 

 ditions of the bladder and urinary tract, and of exciting a 

 healthy action in the diseased membrane. 



Where irritability of the bladder appears in connection with 

 such fevers as the epizootic distemper of horses, and where we 

 fear hgemorrhagic effusions here or in other hollow organs, I 

 have observed benefit to follow the use of moderate doses of 

 sulphuric acid and sulphate of iron, alternated with full doses 

 of salicylic acid. 



CHAPTER LIV. 



diseases of the cutaneous system. 



General Considerations and Classification. 



The importance attaching to diseases of the skin and accessory 

 structures in the horse, although never likely to reach, even 

 relatively, the same consideration, compared with those of the 



