DISEASES OF TlIK VHINAHV 01U;ANS. 



137 



looked for: (1) Color: White from depositetl .salts of lime: l>io\vn 

 or red from blood clots or coloriii<^ matter; yellow or oran<»:e from 

 hile or hlood pigment; pale from excess of .water; or variously 

 coloreil from vejretaMe ingredients (santonin makes it red; rhubarb 

 or senna, brown; tar or carbolic acid, green). ("2) Detusity: The 

 horse's urine may be 1.030 or 1.050, but it nuiy greatly exceed this in 

 diabetes and may sink to 1.007 in diuresis. (3) CJunihal naefion. as 

 ascertained by blue litmus or red test i)apers. The horse on vegetable 

 diet has alkaline urine turning red test papers blue, while in the 

 suckijig I'olt and the horse fed on flesh or on his own tissue (in 

 star\ ation or abstinence during disease) it is acid, turning blue litmus 

 led. (4) Organic constituents, as when glairy from albumen co- 

 agulable by strong nitric acid and boiling, when charged with micro- 

 scoj)ic casts of the uriniferous tubes, with the eggs or bodies of worms, 

 with sugar, blood, or bile. (5) In its salts, which may crystallize out 

 >l)ontaneously, oi" on boiling, or on the addition of chemical reagents. 



Albuminous urine in the horse is usiuilly glairy, so that it may be 

 drawn out in thieads, but its presence can alwaj's be tested as follows: 

 If the li(|uid is oi)a(iue, it may be first ]^assed through filter ]^ai)er; 

 if very dense and already precipitating its salts, it may be diluted 

 with distilled water; add to the suspected Vniuid acetic acid drop by 

 dro]) until it reddens the blue litmus paper: then boil gently in a 

 test tube; if a i)recipitate is thrown down, set the tube aside to cool 

 and then add strong nitric acid. If the precipitate is not dissolved, it 

 is albumen; if dissolved it is probably urate or hippurate of am- 

 monia. Albumen is normally present in advanced gestation; abnor- 

 mally it is seen in diseases in which there occurs destruction of l)lood 

 globules (anthrax, low fcvei's. watery states of the blood, dropsies), in 

 diseases of the heart and li\er which j)revent the free escape of blood 

 from the veins and throw l)ack venous pressure on the kidneys, in 

 inflammation of the lungs and i)leurje, and even tympany (bloat- 

 ing), doubtless from the same cause, and in all congestive or inflam- 

 matory diseases of the kidneys, acute or chronic. 



Casts of the uriniferous tubes can be seen only by jjlacing the sus- 

 pected urine undei* the microscoj)e. They aie usually very ela>tic and 

 mobile, waving about in the li(piid when the cover glass is touched, 

 and showing a unifoi-m, clear transi)arency (waxy) or entangled cii- 

 cular epithelial cells or opa<|ue granules or flattened, red-blood glob- 

 ules or clear, rcfrangent oil globides. They may be even densely 

 opaqiie from crystals of earthy salts. 



I'lis cells may be fotmd in the urine associated with albinuen, and 

 are recognized by clearing up, when treated with acetic acid, so that 

 each cell shows two or three nuclei. 



