«o6 THE FARM DOCTOR. 



this with an anodyne (opium, belladonna, tobacco), throw 

 anodyne and mucilaginous injections into the rectum, and 

 cover the loins with a fresh sheep-skin, the fleshy side in, or 

 with a soothing poultice or fomentations, following this up in 

 six or eight hours by a mustard poultice. Mucilaginous drinks 

 may be given freely, but diuretics are to be sedulously avoided, 

 and warm clothing used to favour sweating, and thus relieve the 

 kidneys of work. Laxatives and anodynes must be repeated 

 as may seem necessary, and finally a course of bitter tonics 

 may be allowed. 



ALBUMINURIA. BRIGHT's DISEASE. DESQUAMATIVE NEPHRITIS. 



This consists in inflammation of the kidneys, acute or 

 chronic, with degeneration and shedding of the epithelium, 

 from the kidney tubes. 



Symptoms. — More or less awkwardness of gait behind, and 

 tenderness of the loins, in some cases indisposition to Ue down, 

 thick, gelatinous, ropy urine, with microscopic casts of the 

 kidney tubes, containing much spherical epithelium and granu- 

 lar matter. The urine coagulates in part in whitish flakes v/hen 

 boiled, or under the action of corrosive sublimate, acetate of 

 lead or nitric acid. The general health suffers, and the patient 

 dies sooner or later of uremia with dropsy, or of some other 

 affection which has been aggravated by the impaired vitality 

 and the excess of the elements of urine in the blood. 



Treatment is not always satisfactory, though a certain pro- 

 portion recover. Avoid exposure to cold, keep in a warm box 

 and^, warmly clothed. Keep the bowels acting freely by a 

 restricted diet of warm bran mashes, etc., or even by laxatives. 

 Give tonics (phosphate of iron, quinia, willow bark), and 

 mineral acids, and use mustard applications to the loins. If 

 the kidneys fail to act, do not give diuretics, but use cupping 

 over the part, or hot fomentations with water, or, better still, 

 a strong infusion of digitalis. 



