DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 147 



For the purposes of this work it will be convenient to consider these 

 as one inflammatory disease, making a distinction merely between those 

 that are acute and those that are chronic or of long standing. 



The causes are in the main like those causing bloody urine, such as 

 irritant and diuretic plants, Spanish flies applied as a blister or other- 

 wise, exposure to cold and wet, the presence of stone or gravel in the 

 kidneys, injuries to the back or loins, as by riding each other, the drink- 

 ing of alkaline or selenitiotis water, the use of putrid, stagnant water, 

 or of that containing bacteria and their products, the consumption of 

 musty fodder, etc. (See Hreinaturia.) 



The length of the loins in cattle predisposes these to mechanical 

 injury, and in the lean and especially in the thin working ox the kid- 

 ney is very liable to suffer. In the absence of an abundance of loose 

 connective tissue and of fat, the kidneys lie in close contact with the 

 muscles of the loins, and any injury to these may tend to put the kid- 

 ney and its vessels on the stretch, or to cause its inflammation by direct 

 extension of the disease from the injured muscle to the adjacent kidney. 

 Thus, under unusually heavy draft, under slips and falls on slippery 

 ground, under sudden unexpected drooping or twisting of the loins 

 from missteps or from the feet sinking into holes, under the loading and 

 jarring of the loins when animals ride each other in cases of " heat," 

 the kidneys are subjectto injury and inflammation. A hard run, as when 

 chased by a dog, may be the occasion of such an attack. A fodder 

 rich in nitrogenous or flesh-forming elements (brans, peas, vetches 

 [Vicia satira], and other leguminous plants), has been charged* with irri- 

 tating the kidneys through the excess of urea, hippuric acid, and allied 

 products eliminated through these organs and the tendency to the for- 

 ' mation of gravel. It seems, however, that these foods are most dan- 

 gerous when partially ripened and yet not fully matured, a stage of 

 growth at which they are apt to contain ingredients irritating to the 

 stomach and poisonous to the brain, as seen in their inducing so-called 

 " stomach staggers." Even in the poisoning by tho seeds of ripened 

 but only partially cured rye grass (LoUum perennc), and darnel (Loliinn 

 temvlentvm), the kidneys are found violently congested with black blood. 

 Also in the indigestions that result from the eating of partially ripened 

 corn and millet, some congestion of the kidneys is an attendant phe- 

 nomenon. 



Cruzel claims that the disease as occurring locally is usually not 

 alone from the acrid and resinous plants charged with inducing lurma- 

 turia, but also from stinking chamomile (Anthemis cotula) and field 

 poppy when used in the fresh, succulent condition; also from the great 

 prevalence of dead caterpillars on the pasture, or from dead Spanish 

 flies in the stagnant pools of water. The fresh plants are believed to 

 be injurious only by reason of a volatile oil which is dissipated in dry- 

 ing. In the case of the stagnant water it may bo questioned whether 

 the chemical products of the contained ferments (bacteria) are not more 



