580 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



drawn off with a catheter, and then warm sedative solutions, 

 such as infusion of poppies, may be injected into the bladder. 

 Some regard the introducing of a catheter and of injections as 

 likely to make the inflammation worse. Discretion must be 

 used, and the treatment necessary will vary according as the 

 inflammation is acute or chronic, and as the animal be a male 

 or a female. Warm or hot water should be applied to the 

 abdomen. The main thing is to give abundance of simple 

 watery gruel, and nothing else whatever. 



Inversion of the bladder in the cow may take place in conse- 

 quence of excessive parturient pains. The patient should be 

 slaughtered in most cases. The organ may, however, be returned 

 after the straining pains have ceased. 



Turning now from the consideration of the ox to that of 

 human beings, by way of conclusion, we may say that the diseases 

 of the urinary mechanism in mankind may often be guarded 

 against by care. Our readers will perhaps know that it is not 

 only because active exercise calls forth the functions of the 

 various secretory and excretory organs — amongst which last the 

 kidneys are to be reckoned as perhaps the most important — 

 that it is to be regarded as one of the essential conditions 

 of health in a normally constituted and healthy human being or 

 animal, but also because in the case of mankind it certainly is 

 a fact — and one, too, that is not very generally understood — 

 that worry, anxiety, and excessive mental toil do bring on various 

 derangements of the urinary apparatus. It will, then, be very 

 clear to those who think about this matter that any causes which 

 interfere with the due discharge of the excretory functions 

 cannot but be productive of serious damage, and should, there- 

 fore, be avoided with the uttermost care. 



It is a very great mistake to look upon the kidneys in the light 

 of simple filtering mechanisms. True, they remove water from 

 the system ; but the substances contained in the fluid, and 

 especially that which is called urea, are of the very greatest 

 significance. It should be remembered also that the excessive 

 mental work which some men indulge in cannot but produce in 

 due course the most disastrous effects. That pernicious practice 

 called cramming, which so many boys and girls, and young men 

 and maidens — aye, and older people too — indulge in, or are sub- 

 jected to, is most ruinous to the constitution. From every point 



