CYSTIC OR VESICAL CALCULI. 495 



more particularly is exposed. I come to this conclusion from 

 the multiplied specimens which are being continually brought 

 from the horse-slaughterers^ yards to the college; and, on in- 

 quiry being made, in very many instances, we have not been 

 able to ascertain that, during life, the animals showed any 

 symptoms indicative of their presence. This may, in a great 

 measure, arise from the want of observation on the part of 

 their owners, or from the symptoms having been mistaken 

 for those of spasmodic colic. It is,- however, sometimes the 

 case that indubitable proofs are afforded of the existence of 

 these foreign bodies ; still the poor brutes, notwithstanding, 

 have been compelled to lengthen out a miserable existence, 

 until, exhausted by pain, they have become so feeble as to 

 be altogether incapable of further labour." ' 



Some of the stones fou?nd in the bladder were no doubt 

 originally renal calculi ^ i.e., formed within the kidneys; 

 others there are, however, which we believe to be originated, 

 and to receive their augmentation entirely within the bladder. 

 The late Professor Coleman was of opinion that most calculi 

 had their primitive formation within the kidney ; and that 

 in man, owing to his erect attitude, they readily descended 

 into the bladder; but that it was quite otherwise in the 

 horse, owing to his horizontal position; and this circum- 

 stance, he added, rendered cases of renal calculi comparatively 

 frequent in horses. D^Arboval entertains a different opinion 

 — " quelques unes descendent des ureteres; mais c'est le plus 

 petit nombre." — Professor Morton says, " The origin of all 

 cystic concretions may be traced to the kidneys; at least there 

 their nuclei, when present, are first found. From the hori- 

 zontal position of the bodies of our patients, these do not find 

 their way down the ureters into the bladder so readily as in 

 man; hence renal calculi are more frequently met with in 

 the lower animals than in him.^' ^ 



Of kinds or varieties of vesical calculi, according to 

 Girard, there are four : The first, or soft kind, comprising 



' 'On Calculous Concretions in the Horse, or Sheep, and Dog,' by W. J. T. 

 Morton, Lecturer on Medical, Chemistry, &c., 1844. 

 ^ Op. cit., p. 20. 



