116 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



It may be proper, in all cases where the horse passes, for any 

 length of time, urine that appears to be albuminous, for the own- 

 er to consult a veterinary surgeon. 



CAUSES OF ALBUMINOUS URINE. 



" M. Ed. Robin lately read a paper on the above subject before 

 the Academy of Medicine of Paris. We subjoin an abstract of 

 the same : In the normal state the albumen is burnt in the blood, 

 and the nitrogenized residue of this combustion, viz., urea and 

 uric acid, is eliminated by the urine. The combustion is, how- 

 ever, not so complete as not to allow some little albumen to 

 escape with the renal secretion ; but this albumen, besides being 

 very small in amount, is somewhat different from the ordinary 

 kind. M. Robin thinks that if during a sufficiently long time 

 the albumen underwent in the circulation a much smaller amount 

 of combustion than is habitually the case, it might pass unaltered 

 into the urine, instead of being thrown off in the form of urea 

 and uric acid. The author cites the following facts in support 

 of his opinion : — 



" The urine becomes albuminous in croup, in complete ascites, 

 and in cases of capillary bronchitis, with emphysema, accom- 

 panied by much dyspnoea ; in pulmonary phthisis, especially when 

 complicated by pneumonia and marked with difficult breathing ; 

 in gestation, when sufficiently advanced to occasion an habitual 

 congestion of the kidneys, owing to an impeded abdominal circu- 

 lation ; and in such states of the system in which a very incom- 

 plete respiration causes a marked diminution of combustion. 

 The urine is also albuminous in cyanosis of whichever nature it 

 may be ; in affections of the heart, when they exist in such a 

 degree as to keep the patient in a state of semi-asphyxia ; and, 

 of course, in such cases where an obstacle to the circulation of 

 the blood, or a malformation of the heart, prevents the hasmato- 

 6is from being as rapid as under ordinary circumstances. The 

 urine is likewise albuminous in idiopathic or traumatic lesions of 

 the nervous centres, which cause a lowering of temperature, and 

 thereby a marked decrease of combustion ; in diabetes, a disease 

 where very often a lesion of the nervous centre seems to be the 



