320 CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASES 



daily, a dog over a year, two meals daily; a small meal in the morning 

 and the good meal at night; dogs that have very little exercise, one meal 

 daily is sufficient, and as a rule they seem to do very nicely on it. Slight 

 laxatives, especially the salines, such as Apenta, Hunyadi, or Veronica 

 waters, in teaspoonful doses once daily, and a pinch of phosphate of 

 soda in the morning. There seems to be some value in the administration 

 of the preparations of the thyroid glands (thyroid, thyroidin, or iodothyrin 

 tablets), these tablets contain the equivalent of 0.3 of fresh thyroid 

 gland and are to be given according to the size of the animal, from 1 to 

 3 tablets daily. Seven clogs were treated with thyroidinum depuratum 

 in doses of 0.15 daily, and in from one to four weeks the animals were 

 reduced in amounts varying from 350 to 3460 grams. But these prepara- 

 rations must be used with great care, beginning with a very small dose 

 and gradually increasing it. Iodide of potassium, boracic acid and borax 

 are not to be recommended as they are apt to cause disorder of the 

 digestion. 



Uraemia. 



As a consequence of this disease and impaired activity of the kid- 

 neys, certain substances, that should be thrown out in the urine, remain 

 in the blood; also the watery excretions of the body, acting as a poison, 

 produce a condition known as ''ursemia." The exact nature of the 

 materials that cause this disturbance is not definitely knowai, but in all 

 probability it is not due to one, but to several substances, such as albu- 

 minous decompositions and certain end-products. Ursemia is usually 

 Been as a result of acute inflammation of the kidney, hydronephrosis, 

 obstruction of the neck of the bladder, or urethra, by calculi; from 

 tumors of the prostate, paralysis of the detrusor, and rupture of the 

 bladder. The disease may be acute or chronic, and one form may merge 

 into the other. The acute form is seen in acute inflammation of the 

 kidney and retention of urine in the bladder, in this case there is j^er- 

 sistent vomiting, convulsive twitching of the muscles, convulsions, coma 

 and subnormal temperature. The chronic forms may appear following 

 chronic nephritis, and from partial retention of the urine, it is seen par- 

 ticularly in stone in the urethra, when the passage is not completely 

 obstructed, but only allows a very small quantity of urine to escape, 

 when this is present there is depression, loss of appetite, irregular vomit- 

 ing, occasional convulsions, diarrhcra. Certain experiments have been 

 made on the dog to artificially produce these ura}mic symptoms — 

 for instance, by removing both kidneys or ligitating the ureters. Voit 

 observed that when healthy animals were fed on food containing uric 

 acid, and at the same time deprived of water, these conditions pro- 



