202 THE FARM DOCTOR. 



as ascertained by pinching on the spines or the transverse 

 processes of the backbone, there is less difficulty experienced 

 m backing than when there is sprain or fracture of the back or 

 loins, and the animal is more likely to lie down though it costs 

 an extra effort to rise, there is straining to discharge urine, 

 which is passed in excess, in deficiency, in jets, in dribblets 

 only, or not at all. In the Jatger animaL the bladder and its 

 excretory duct (urethra) are easily and satisfactorily examined 

 by the hand introduced through the rectum or vagina, and any 

 tenderness, flaccidity, swelling, over-distension, or foreign' agent 

 (stone) is easily made out. In the smaller breeds of horses and 

 cattle even, the kidneys may be reached in this way, and any 

 heat, swelling, tenderness, etc., perceived. Then brain disease, 

 dropsies, and skin eruptions are common results of urinary 

 disorder. 



Examination of the Urine. — But a certain class of urinary 

 diseases are only to be made out by examination of the urine. 

 Beside the modifications of quantity and flow already referred 

 to, this may be altered : \st, in colour, as white from saline 

 deposits, brown or red from blood clots and colouring matter, 

 or from imperfectly oxidized albuminoids, yelloiv or orange from 

 bile or blood pigment, pale or variously tinted from vegetable 

 colours taken with the food ; 2d, in density as measured by a 

 hygrometer (urinometer), the natural urine being in the horse 

 and ox 1030 to ic6o, pig and goat loio to 1012, dog 1020, and 

 cat 1058; 3^, in chemical reaction, acidity or alkalinity, as 

 ascertained by blue litmus or red test-papers (healthy herbivor- 

 ous urine is alkaline, turning the red papers blue unless after 

 prolonged abstinence or a flesh diet; carnivorous and omni- 

 vorous urine is acid excepting when confined to a vegetable 

 diet) ; 4th, in orga/iic ingredients, as when it contains albumen 

 (coagulable by boiling or by strong nitric acid, or in the horse 

 civing tlie liquid a ropy consistency), sugar, blood, bile, cyliu- 

 droid n-iicro.:.copic casts of the uriniferous tubes or the eggs or 



