THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. Ill 



eight ounces, water three quarts ; boil down to two quarts. When 

 cool, strain, and give a pint every six hours, until the horse is 

 relieved. 



This simple treatment, aided by a light diet and rest, will 

 generally effect a cure. If, however, the disease arises from 

 concretions within the cavity of the kidneys, the case will require 

 the aid of a skilful veterinary surgeon. 



The author has noticed in stables celebrated for the number of 

 horses with a stiff, straddling gait, laboring under an attack of 

 acute or chronic form of nephritis, that there is, generally, a 

 bountiful supply of rosin on hand, and on several occasions has 

 learned that the parties having charge of the animals are much 

 in favor of diuretic medicine, and think it absolutely necessary to 

 give a dose now and then. This haphazard dosing is no doubt 

 the cause of the mischief; for diuretics, which generally act with 

 extraordinary power on the horse, diverting the excrementitious 

 fluids from the skin and lungs, are apt to produce inflammation, 

 and thus induce chronic disease of the kidneys. Many horses 

 that can readily be found suffering from what their owners term 

 strain of the loins, are, no doubt, so many cases of chronic dis- 

 ease of these organs. 



On chronic disease of the kidneys, Mr. Percivall writes, " I 

 am inclined to think that nephritis, in a mild or subacute form, 

 exists in many instances, wherein, from the trifling perceptible 

 alterations induced by it in the ordinary health of the animal, we 

 are apt either altogether to overlook the disorder, or else to re- 

 gard it as too unimportant to notice. Horses are often brought 

 to us with complaints of pain and difficulty in staling — of the 

 urine they pass being thick, foul, or bloody ; and which horses 

 probably may, on inquiry, be found to show some stiffness about 

 the loins when first brought from the stable, though by use the 

 parts soon grow pliant again. And yet in a general way they 

 exhibit every sign of health. With these facts we may connect 

 the circumstance of occasionally discovering, in horses which have 

 died from other causes, purulent matter within the kidneys, and 

 now and then disorganization of their substance, and without any 

 thing having occurred during life to direct our attention to 

 those organs." 



