836 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



with a whitish, milky fluid; or, as sometimes happens, the 

 process is. exactly the reverse of this. When the disease is 

 further advanced, the urine is thicker and of the deeper tinge 

 at every period of its discharge, and often has an offensive 

 smell. Hundreds of our readers have doubtless seen the 

 case in so bad a form that the urine flowed and fell to the 

 ground like a stream of molasses, and was nearly as dark in 

 color. 



The thick, milky discharge resembles that which a few 

 veterinary writers have described under the name of albu- 

 minous urine, in which the kidneys secrete an excessive 

 quantity of albumen — the sticky element of the blood, and 

 that which is found, almost unmixed with any other sub- 

 stance, in the white of an egg. 



In this condition, there is great difficulty experienced in 

 passing the urine, which the horse seeks to overcome by 

 stretching, straining, and putting out his fore-feet as far aa 

 possible. Some 8tifi*ness in the hind legs and hips also ac- 

 companies it, and occasionally there is some fever. As will 

 now be described, this is one of the agencies instrumental in 

 producing the paiaful disease which is known as gravel — 

 the formation of calculi, or stones, in the kidneys and bladder. 



WHITE OR LIMY URINE. 



In all urinary discharges, there is a certain amount of cal- 

 carious or limy substances, which, if they pass away natur- 

 ally and without any obstruction, are not prejudicial to the 

 animal's health. Even when these limy secretions are excess- 

 ive, they do not probably bring on any specific disease, until 

 the urine takes on the albuminous character, mentioned 

 above; and then there is a mechanical union of the sticky 

 albumen and the limy matter, so that the latter is cemented 

 into little balls, or lumps, which continue to slowly increase 

 in size, and, at last, become very painful. As a certain com- 

 bination of circumstances is necessary to solidify the fine mist 

 of the clouds into the rattling hail-stones, so it requires the pres- 

 ence and action of the albumen to unite the impalpable limy 



