HYPERTROPHY OF THE PROSTATE. 



In old dogs. Causes : age, overfeeding on albuminoids, rectal impaction or 

 irritation, calculus, cystitis, urethritis, productive inflammation, trophic 

 derangement when function declines. Lesions : hypertrophy general or 

 partial, hard or soft, condensed or with sacs of pus, red or pale. Infective 

 C3'stitis. Calculi. Symptoms : straining before urine comes, small or weak 

 stream, sudden check, last part purulent or mucous, incontinence, triple 

 phosphate, ammoniacal odor, crystals and dark color imply calculus. Diag- 

 nosis : by rectal exploration, and catheterization. Treatment : palliative, 

 moderate, farinaceous, laxative diet, warmth, correct contiguous troubles, 

 iodine, castration, extirpation of prostate. 



Tliis lia.s been seen almost exclusively in old clogs, among the 

 dome.stic animals. 



Causes. Age and good living, more particularly on highly 

 albuminotis food, may be adduced as the most prominent. Per- 

 haps even more important are continued irritation in adjacent 

 organs such as the rectum, bladder and urethra. It is the old, 

 pampered dog that above all suffers from atonic, overloaded 

 rectum, proctitis, piles, calculus, cystitis, and stricture, and the 

 constant local pelvic congestion caused by one or other of these 

 tends to a hyperplasia of the prostate. Again atheroma which is 

 especially a disease of the aged is regarded as a cause of both 

 cystitis and prostatic hypertropliy. Chronic inflammation in the 

 prostate has been claimed as a factor, but contested on the ground 

 that inflammation never increases normal growth though it may 

 cause degeneration. The exudate of inflammation, tends, how- 

 ever, on its temporary arrest, to undergo organization, and such 

 organization inclines to assume the structure which is normally 

 built up by the adjacent trophic cells. The products of inflam- 

 mation may, therefore, well contribute to h3^pertrophy, and above 

 all to the increase of the simpler tissue represented by the fibrous 

 framework of the gland. The congestion attendant on excessive 

 venery has also been incriminated, and this too has been denied 

 on the groinid that the hypertrophy is not found in the young 

 animals and men in which the generative ardor is greatest and 

 mcst frequently aroused and gratified. Thompson's idea is that 

 the prostate, like the ovaries and womb, is especially prone to 

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