120 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



additional causes of albuminiuia may be named: (1) An excess of 

 albumin in the blood (after easy calving with little loss of blood and 

 before the secretion of milk has been established, or in cases of sud- 

 den suppression of the secretion of milk) ; (2) under increase of 

 blood pressure (after deep drinking, after doses of digitalis or 

 broom, after transfusion of blood from one animal to another, or in 

 disease of the heart or lungs causing obstruction to the flow of blood 

 from the veins) ; (3) after cutting (or disease) of the motor nerves 

 of the vessels going to the kidneys, causing congestion of these 

 organs; (4) violent exertion, hence long drives; the same happens 

 with violent, muscular spasms, as from strychnia poisoning, lock- 

 jaw, epilepsy, and convulsions; (5) in most fevers and extensive in- 

 flammations of important organs, like the lungs or liver, the escape 

 of the albumin being variously attributed to the high temperature 

 of the body and disorder of the nerves, and to resulting congestion 

 and disorder of the secreting cells of the kidneys; (6) in burns and 

 some other congested states of the skin; (7) under the action of cer- 

 tain poisons (strong acids, phosphorous, arsenic, Spanish flies, car- 

 bolic acid, and those inducing bloody urine) ; (8) in certain con- 

 ditions of weakness or congestion of the secreting cells of the kidneys, 

 so that they allow this element of the blood to escape; (9) when the 

 feed is entirely wanting in common salt, albumin may appear in the 

 urine temporarily after a full meal containing an excess of albumin. 

 It can also be produced experimentally by puncturing the back part 

 of the base of the brain (the floor of the fourth ventricle close to 

 the point the injury to which causes sugary urine). In abscess, 

 tumor, or inflammation of the bladder, ureter, or urethra the urine 

 is albuminous. 



It follows, therefore, that albumin in the urine does not indicate 

 the existence of any one specific disease, and except when from weak- 

 ness or loss of function of the kidney cells, it must be looked on as 

 an attendant on another disease, the true nature of which we must 

 try to find out. These affections we must exclude one by one until 

 we are left to assume the noninflammatory disorder of the secreting 

 cells of the kidney. It is especially important to exclude inflamma- 

 tion of the kidney, and to do tliis may require a microscopic exami- 

 nation of the sediment of the urine and the demonstration of the 

 entire absence of casts of the uriniferous tubes. (See "Nephritis," 



P-121.) 



To detect albumin in the urine, the suspected and frothy liquid 

 must be rendered sour by adding a few drops of nitric acid and then 

 boiled in a test tube. If a solid precipitate forms, then a few more 

 drops of nitric acid should be added, and if the liquid does not clear 

 it up it is albumin. A precipitate thrown down by boiling and re- 

 dissolved by nitric acid is probably phosphate of lime. 



