202 DICTIONARY OF THE VETERINARY ART. 



hard on the rein. The author would suggest a trial of ap 

 India rubber centrepiece, in such cases. 



Bite of any rabid animal. In most works on veterinary 

 science, the writers recommend excision, or cutting out the 

 bitten part, and afterwards cauterizing with the firing iron; 

 but this method is very unsatisfactory, and only puts the 

 animal to unnecessary torment. The morbid matter from a 

 rabid animal is generally taken up by the absorbents, some- 

 times in a few seconds, and the operation of cauterizing 

 would then be of no avail. The treatment we recommend, 

 is to dose the animal with a tea of lobelia ; half a pound of 

 the herb and seed may be steeped in two quarts of scalding 

 water, and given in doses of half a pint, at intervals of an 

 hour. A large poultice of the same should be bound on the 

 bitten part, and kept in contact with the parts, by bandages, 

 and the poultice renewed every six hours, until all signs of 

 poisoning disappear. The animal should be kept on scalded 

 shorts, in moderate quantities. 



Black Water. This is sometimes a termination of red 

 water. (See Red Water.) 



Bladder. The bladder is a musculo-membranous bag, 

 situated, when empty, in the cavity of the pelvis. Its use is 

 to contain the urine, which flows into it through the ureters, 

 from the kidneys. It is divided into three parts, viz., the 

 fundus or bottom, the body, and the neck. When full, the 

 fundus of the bladder protrudes out of the pelvis, into the 

 abdominal cavity ; it then receives a covering from the perito- 

 neum. Its other coats are an internal mucous membrane, and 

 an external muscular coat, formed of two distinct sets of 

 fibres ; the one longitudinal, and the other circular. The 

 former are thickest about the fundus, the latter about the 

 neck or cervix, which, by this arrangement, is always kept 

 closed, except during the time of voiding the urine. On 

 opening horses that have died from accident, we sometimes 

 find the bladder empty, and its muscular fibres so condensed, 

 that it appears like a solid mass of small dimensions ; such is 

 the contractile power of its muscular coat, by which, with 



