NEPHRITIS. 463 



using, take some effect or other upon it. I believe 

 this to be one reason why so very few medicines operate as 

 cathartics to horses : the majority of them so readily ad- 

 mitting of being carried out of the system through the secre- 

 tion of the kidneys. A well-known fact, strongly corrobo- 

 rative of this opinion — one to which my attention was drawn 

 in early life by my late respected father — is that of a copious 

 flow of urine of a dark colour being frequently observable 

 to take place in horses who have been but slightly or not at 

 all affected by doses of physic they have taken, but who, 

 notwithstanding the little or no purgative effect they have 

 experienced, have afterwards evinced quite as much tem- 

 porary weakness and loss in condition as though the physic 

 had worked their bowels. I likewise set this down as one 

 reason why mercury produces ptyalism with such compara- 

 tive tardiness and uncertainty in horses. This susceptibility 

 of the kidney, in veterinary medicine and dietetics, never 

 ought to be lost sight of : it is of vast importance to us in 

 practice — that which renders our practice in many cases so 

 different from what surgeons would pursue under similar 

 circumstances : we being able to effect so much more in the 

 system of the horse, through the agency of these organs, 

 than is to be accomplished in that of the human being. The 

 veterinary surgeon, in fact, will often be able to effect that 

 through the medium of the kidneys which the surgeon can 

 only accomplish through the agency of the skin and bowels. 



NEPHRITIS. 



Nephritis, from vE(j)poQ and itis, inflammation of the kid- 

 neys, is, in an acute form, a dangerous disease, but fortunately 

 one of infrequent occurrence in horses. When present, it 

 is commonly assignable to some injury or abuse inflicted on 

 the kidney. Girard informs us that it is an affection more 

 frequent in ruminants than in horses, though attended with 

 most danger in the latter. As an army practitioner, the 

 cases that have fallen under my own immediate notice have 

 been but few : this may arise from cavalry horses being, for 



