DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 161 



FORMS OF CALCULI IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS. 



Apart from the rough crystalline surfaces of the calculi of oxalate of 

 lime and ammonio-magnesium phosphate, the general tendency is to a 

 smooth, round outline. At times, however, they show more or less flat- 

 tening with rounded angular edges, caused by the contact and mutual 

 friction of two calculi. Sometimes two or more stones lying together 

 become united into one by a new external deposit, and the resulting 

 mass then shows rounded swellings on opposite sides. The large cal- 

 culi occupying the pelvis of the kidneys usually shows a central part 

 having the outline of the main cavity of the pelvis and two or more 

 projections that have been molded into corresponding branches or chan- 

 nels which lead to corresponding lobes of the kidney. In winter and 

 spring small concretions in the form of plates are often met with in the 

 branches of the pelvis, having been formed and molded in the confined 

 space between the projecting papilla and the surrounding cup-like 

 branch of the pelvis. Finally, the pulp-like deposits in the sheath and 

 elsewhere are made up of globular masses, individually so small as to 

 be often practically microscopic. 



STONE IN THE KIDNEY RENAL CALCULI. 

 [Plate XI, Fig. I.] 



In an animal leading the quiet, uneventful life of the ox, stones of 

 large size may be present in the kidney without producing any disorder 

 appreciable to the people about him. In cattle fattened on dry food in 

 winter, on our inagnesian limestone of New York, it is exceptional to 

 find the substance of the kidney free from calculi about the size of a 

 grain of wheat or less, and standing out as white objects in the general 

 red of the cut surface of the organ. Similarly around the papillae in 

 tin- cup-like arms of the pelvis we find minute flattened or more or less 

 rounded yellowish-white concretions. Even the large concretions may 

 prove apparently harmless. I have a calculus several ounces in weight 

 filling the entire pelvis of the kidney, which was found by accident in 

 a fat carcass while being dressed. In work oxen, however, such concre- 

 tions may give rise to symptoms of kidney disease, such as stiffness of 

 the loins, shown especially in the acts of rising or turning, weakness of 

 the hind parts when set to pull a heavy load, an irritability of the kid- 

 neys, shown by the frequent passage of urine in small quantity, tender- 

 ness of the loins, shown when they are pinched or lightly struck, and it 

 may be the passage of blood or minute gritty masses with the urine. 

 If the attack is severe, what is called renal colic (kidney colic) may bo 

 shown by frequent uneasy shifting of the hind limbs, shaking or twist- 

 ing of the tail, looking round at the flanks, and lying down and rising 

 again at short intervals without apparent cause. The frequent pass- 

 age of urine, the-, blood or gritty masses contained in it, and perhaps 

 the hard stony cylinders around the tufts of hair of the sheath, show 

 that the source of the Buffering is the urinary organs. In bad cases act- 

 ive inflammation of the kidneys may set in. (See Nephritis.) 

 24f,97 11 



