CONGENITAL MALFORMATIONS. 615 



DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS, 



I.— CONGENITAL MALFORMATIONS. 



(1.) EISSURING OF THE MALE URETHRA (HYPOSPADIA 

 AND EPISPADIA.) 



In consequence of arrested fcetal development the urethra may 

 fail to entirely close at some point in its course, and thus present 

 the appearance of an open channel. When this occurs in the posterior, 

 lower wall, the condition is termed hypospadia, when in the upper, 

 anterior wall, epispadia. In animals, neither condition has the 

 same significance as in men, as the patients, which are usually dogs 

 or sheep, are either destroyed or left without treatment. Horses 

 are seldom affected. The abnormal opening may lie just behind the 

 glans, or in the course of the urethra nearer the bladder ; where 

 it occurs close below the anus, the animals are sometimes mistaken 

 for hermaphrodites. Hypospadia is not infrequently associated with 

 cloaca formation, as noted by Moller in the case of a dog which 

 appeared to suffer continuously from sexual excitement. Guinard 

 saw hypospadia in a three-year-old cryptorchid bull. 



Treatment is seldom called for unless the condition is accompanied 

 by difficulty in urination. The natural opening of the meatus 

 urinarius may not exist, and if the fissure is insufficient for the discharge 

 of urine, it may require enlargement. To prevent reunion of the 

 parts the meatus is divided from below upwards in the form of a 

 " Y," and the edges attached to the skin. 



(2.) PERVIOUS URACHUS. 



Up to the time of birth urine is discharged through the urachus, 

 but when that closes the urine passes through the meatus urinarius. 

 In a few cases the urachus remains open even after birth, and urine 

 is discharged through it. Burmeister saw this in a three weeks 

 old foal ; when staling, some urine always flowed from the navel. 

 In a colt described by Herbet urine was only passed by the urethra 

 in drops, but flowed in a stream from the opening in the navel, which 

 was about J inch across. Kauffmann and Blanc found the following 

 conditions existing in a thirty-seven days old calf — atresia ani ; 

 hernia, as large as a child's head, in the linea alba, between the navel 



