DISEASES OF THE BLADDER. 189 



ment and obliteration of its structure as a secreting organ ; and 

 a third is a collection of earthy matter or gravel. I have seen a 

 stone that was found in a horse's kidney which weighed five 

 ounces. Gibson relates a case of decayed kidneys in a miller's 

 horse, caused, as he thought, by carrying heavy burdens. " This 

 horse," he says, " was often subject to suppression of urine, and 

 though he was always relieved lay timely applications, yet these 

 attacks became more frequent as he grew old, till the last attack, 

 when he continued three days without staling, or showing the 

 least disposition to stale. During this time he never stood wide 

 or straddling, as in inflammation of the kidneys, but moved his 

 hind legs with ease till the day before his death, when his legs 

 and whole body swelled, and broke out into great blotches. On 

 opening the body after death the left kidney was found very 

 large, in some places spongy, in others scirrhous, and so mangled 

 that nothing of its original structure appeared. Nothing re- 

 mained of the right kidney but a small hard substance, about 

 the size of a pullet's egg, almost ossified, and of no regular 

 shape." In examining glandered horses that have taken sub- 

 limate or calomel for some time, I have generally found one or 

 both kidneys considerably enlarged ; but instead of looking red 

 and inflamed, they were generally pale, flabby, and tendei*. All 

 the preparations of mercury, when continued for some time, act 

 powerfully as diuretics ; from which it may be inferred that an 

 improper use of any diui'etic medicine is likely to injure the 

 kidneys. Calculous concretions, or gravel, are sometimes found 

 in the kidneys both of horses and cattle, and as long as they 

 remain thei'e appear to produce but little irritation. Stones are 

 much more frequently found in the kidneys than in the bladder, 

 contrary to the fact in the human subject ; this is owing to the 

 erect position of man favouring the descent of the calculus, and 

 the horizontal posture of the horse tending to prevent it. 



CHAP. XXXVIII. 



DISEASES OF THE BLADDER. 



Iiiflaminatwn of the Bladder ( Ci/stitis). 



[This disease is rarely met with, although it now and then occurs, 

 sometimes connected with other diseases, and sometimes as an 

 independent affection. It is, I think, more fi-equent in the 

 mare than the horse, and it has been produced by injecting 

 acrid substances into the bladder with a view to promote the 

 disposition to copulate. Some cases of this kind were related 



