108 CAUSES OF CONCRETIONS. 



vigour at the time of its access, and the consequent inability to expel the mtru 

 bioii, appear to be the immecUate cause of this otherwise inscrutable disorder 

 Subsequently, other congenial materials reach the original evil, mostly in the 

 liquid form, and thus add to its size, increase the number of striata, and height- 

 en the danger. The water that is drank by quadrupeds is abundantly impreg- 

 nated with fit materials for generating calculi : soft river water, and that of 

 turbid pools, convey the softer or earthy particles into the animal's system, 

 whilst that drawn from sj)rings contains the elements for forming stone, as 

 perfect as any geologists find in the strata of our earth. The softer kind of 

 these concretions are found in the blind gut, or coccum ; the harder, or stony 

 kind, in the other viscera above named. 



Heat is the power that separates these elements, and hardens each addition- 

 al lamina that has accrued, or grown over the preceding, from time to time, 

 as the animal may have been ex[)osed to drink so impregnated. This is visi- 

 ble on the section of those stones which have been found in horses and other 

 animals, and preserved by the curious, and cut in two by the lapidary. Every 

 such concretion so found, of whatever nature it may bo, exhibits in the centre 

 the nucleus or commencement of the evil, which proves itself to have l»een 

 either originally stone, or some soft substance, as a bit of chaff hardened by 

 the heat; but much oftener it presents a perfect pebble, that must have l)cen 

 Dome along by force of the current, and in the cleansing function of the kid- 

 neys got detained and deposited there. If not entangled, as it were, in the 

 cellular membrane of this gland, such a pebble will detach itself occasionally 

 and descend through one of the ureters into the bladder. For full informa- 

 tion as to the structure and functions of these several viscera, the reader is 

 again referred to the second chapter of book the first, which treats alone of 

 such matters ; as regards the coecum, at page 46 ; the kidneys at page 51 ; the 

 bladder at page 53. 



One original cause of such concretions has been ascertained beyond contra- 

 diction, and as the information may prevent its recurrence among a numerous 

 olass of horse proprietors, 1 quote my authority much at large, by way of pre 

 ventive advice, seeing that a cure is at present beyond the reach of art ; reme- 

 dies worse than useless. Let us hope, notwithstanding, that the mite which 

 .s here contributed may not be thrown away, but incite some future close ob- 

 server of nature and her ways to add hereto the result of his own inquiries, 

 ar.d so increase the sphere of his utility in one respect, since imperious cir- 

 cumstances have contracted it in another and more obvious line of his profes- 

 sion — the desire of gain. 



Millers' horses are most liable to contract this disorder, and for obvious rea- 

 sons; being large heavy animals for the most part, their ownersopulent if not 

 rich, and grain and pulse ever at hand, dry food is invariably given to them 

 with a liberal hand. To render these substances more agreeable, to hasten 

 digestion, and thus produce a fine coat with a well-filled carcass, their corn is 

 passed through the mill, the beans also are usually broken; and, thus pamper- 

 ed, they eagerly devour the ready feed, and with it whatever extraneous sub- 

 stances it may have acquired in the process of grinding. These are not few 

 in quantity, it seems; for such articles arc invariably ground between stones 

 -xf a soft nature, that easily part with their rough surface, and these stony 

 particles all find their way into the stomach and intestines; some, here and 

 there, pass on through the circulation, by means that are neither uncertain 

 nor inscrutable in the minds of those who have studied such subjects, and will 

 refresh their memory by turning to what 1 have said thereon in the second 

 chapter of the first liooli. 



Dr. Withers, of Newbury, Berks, having many years before given to Dr. 

 Hunter a large intestinal stone, which proved fatal to the horse whenceit had 



