54 DISEASES OF TIIE BLADDER: OPERATION. 



position of earthy particles takes plaee, which is generally converted into stone 

 or gravel. 



J-*alsy of the Madder is induced from frequent repetitions of thus neglect 

 lug the calls of nature, as well as from injuries of the spine; in both which 

 cases the nerves having lost their sensibility, the coats do not contract suffici- 

 ently, and some water is always left behind. In all diseases of the bladder, a 

 disposition to fill speedily manifests itself: and in palsy, this is the leading 

 symptom. When this evil takes place, the horse, while staling, seems un- 

 willing, or is incapable of discharging the last drops of each voidance ; and, if 

 the usual practice of giving diuretics be adopted, the animal is ruined, if he 

 does not burst the fundus of the bladder and die immediately: rather, the 

 contrary method of discharging, instead of filling the bladder, should be sought, 

 and the readiest way to effect this is to introduce the hand into the funda- 

 ment, which having emptied, the bladder may be felt much distended. In 

 this case, we are told, " too much pressure might terminate fatally ; " but by 

 smoothing the bladder gently witti the tops of the fingers, from its neck for- 

 wards, is usually successful. In fact, I never should have thought of its fail- 

 ing, but for what is said in one of the books on diseases of horses (White, vol. 

 i. p. 121), where we find a good number of pages bestowed upon "suppres- 

 sion and retention of urine," which are not diseases in themselves, but the 

 effects of disease; the first arising in defective secretion of the kidneys, the 

 second in the bladder, or its neck. At all times a good deal of sympathy exists 

 between this organ and the kidneys, and the kidneys with the liver; inflam- 

 mation of either being soon communicated to all three, in a degree propor- 

 tioned to the animal's general state of bodily health previously to the attack. 



CHAPTER III. 



General Observations on the Animal System of the Horse, with Reference 

 to the Origin of Constitutional Diseases; Recapitulation and further 

 Development of Veterinary Practice^ upon the principles before laid 

 down. 



Seeing that a recapitulation of the preceding chapters, and a few general 

 observations arising therefrom, would be necessary, before we examine into 

 the particular diseases to which they have reference, 1 shall here adJ the no- 

 tice of such minor parts of the horse, as may seem to have been overlooked ; 

 and then draw such conclusions from the whole, as to the principles upon 

 which veterinary medicine may be most successfully conducted, as appear to 

 me best adapted to your acquiring those just notions of the theory as lead to 

 favourable results in practice. 



The animal system* (which has been so often mentioned) whereby life is 

 rx)ntinued and strength renewed, diseases are contracted, and the disposition 

 lo throw them off is constantly manifested, and by which the ordinary wear 

 and waste of the various component parts of the body is unceasingly supplied 

 with new and healthy matter, has been shown, in the foregoing brief account 

 of the separate parts that contribute, by their united actions, to make up this 

 system. A system that, although api)arently complex and infirm, is, in re- 

 aliiy, simple, magnificent, and robust. It is we (mankind) who derange the 

 ii-. action of those parts,- by oui vanity, our wants, and seU" will; or, by our 



A Rvstem is a coui-se of action, according to some known rule or law of nature; and Ui'» 

 /m has been applied to Bome of man's connivances cilso, not very hiappily. 



