140 DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, ETC. 



with deranged liver or brain. As a mere attendant on another dis- 

 ease it will demand no special notice here. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS (NEPHRITIS). 



This has been divided according as it affects the different parts 

 of the kidneys, as: (1) Its fibrous covering (perinephritis) ; (2) 

 the secreting tissue of its outer portion (parenchymatous) ; (3) the 

 connective tissue (interstitial) ; (4) the lining membrane of its 

 ducts (catarrhal) ; and (5) its pelvis or sac receiving the urine 

 (pyelitis). It has also been distinguished according to the changes 

 that take place in the kidney, especially as seen after death, accord- 

 ing to the amount of albumen present in the urine, and according 

 as the affection is acute or chronic. For the purposes of this work 

 it will be convenient to consider these as one inflammatory disease, 

 making a distinction merely between those that are acute and those 

 that are chronic or of long standing. 



The causes are in the main like those causing bloody urine, such 

 as irritant and diuretic plants, Spanish flies applied as a blister or 

 otherwise, exposure to cold and wet, the presence of stone or gravel in 

 the kidneys, injuries to the back or loins, as by riding each other, the 

 drinking of alkaline or selenitic water, the use of putrid, stagnant 

 water, or of that containing bacteria and their products, the consump- 

 tion of musty fodder, etc. (See Hematuria.) 



The length of the loins in cattle predisposes these to mechanical 

 injury, and in the lean and especially in the thin working ox the kid- 

 ney is very liable to suffer. In the absence of an abundance of loose 

 connective tissue and of fat, the kidneys lie in close contact with the 

 muscles of the loins, and any injury to these may tend to put the kid- 

 ney and its vessels on the stretch, or to cause its inflammation by di- 

 rect extension of the disease from the injured muscle to the adjacent 

 kidney. Thus, under unusually heavy draft, under slips and falls on 

 slippery ground, under sudden unexpected drooping or twisting of 

 the loins from missteps or from the feet sinking into holes, under the 

 loading and jarring of the loins when animals ride each other in 

 cases of heat, the kidneys are subject to injury and inflammation. A 

 hard run, as when chased by a dog, may be the occasion of such an 

 attack. 



Inflammation of the kidneys may further be a form or an exten- 

 sion of a specific contagious disease, such as erysipelas, rinderpest, 

 septicemia, or even of poisoning by the spores of fungi. Rivolta re- 

 ports the case of a cow with spots of local congestion and blood stain- 

 ing in the kidney, the affected parts being loaded with bacteria. Un- 

 fortunately he neither cultivated the bacteria nor inoculated them, 

 and thus the case stands without positive demonstration that these 

 were the cause of disease. 



The symptoms of nephritis are in certain cases very manifest, 

 and in others so hidden that the existence of the affection can only be 

 certainly recognized by a microscopic examination of the urine. In 

 violent cases there is high fever, increase of the body temperature to 

 103 F. and upward; hurried breathing, with catching inspiration; 

 accelerated pulse ; dry, hot muzzle ; burning of the roots of tne horns 



