ALBUMINOUS URINE. 483 



be inordinate, which is sometimes the case, the drainage 

 from the system does not much exceed that of health ; a 

 circumstance accounting in some degree for the little con- 

 stitutional disturbance generally produced by this affection/^ 



This last statement does not hold good in regard to the 

 horse. Most of the urine I have seen, during the continu- 

 ance of the disease, has greatly exceeded in specific gravity 

 healthy urine. 



Dr. Prout, from his cases, concludes that the disease occurs 

 equally in males and females; before and after puberty; oc- 

 casions more or less emaciation ; may continue many years, 

 more or less, without affecting the constitution ; the appetite 

 being generally good, sometimes inordinate ; and there being 

 evidently an inflammatory tendency in the system during its 

 progress, which is benefited by bloodletting. In the chronic 

 stages, the Doctor has found the complaint yield, for a time, 

 completely to opium, astringents, and mineral acids ; whereas, 

 in other instances, these and all other tried remedies have 

 failed. Sometimes the complaint ceases spontaneously, and 

 occurs again after a long interval (as it did in one of my 

 horses) ; and when it has once occurred, it appears to be very 

 liable to return, particularly after exposure to cold, or any 

 cold producing fever. In general, the Doctor has observed 

 that all stimulating remedies and powerful diuretics and tonics 

 ^do harm. 



Lastly, the Doctor asks, " what is the intimate nature of 

 the disease ?'' and answers, that, " like that of all others, it is 

 obscure. ^^ The Doctor thinks it cannot be doubted " that 

 both the assimilating organs and the kidneys are involved in 

 the afffection. The chyle, from some derangement in the 

 process of assimilation, is not raised to the blood-standard, 

 and, consequently, being unfit for the future purposes of the 

 economy, is, agreeably to a law of the economy, ejected 

 through the kidneys: but these organs, instead of converting 

 it into the lithate of ammonia, permit it to pass unchanged. 

 That this is a sound view of tlie matter, cannot, I think, be 

 doubted ; for if the chyle was properly converted into blood, 

 this fluid, and not chyle, ought to be thrown off" by the 



