HEMOGLOBINURIA. 521 



either for racing or hunting", and on a cold windy morning it is not 

 an uncommon occurrence for several of these cases — which are 

 known to racing men as 'setfast' — to come under the notice of 

 the veterinary surgeon. Fortunately these cases are not of the 

 most severe nature, and being promptly attended to answer in a 

 short time to treatment. When this condition is observed in 

 agricultural horses — ^which is a comparatively rare occurrence — 

 it will generally happen during the time that corn is being 

 harvested and the horses are allowed to eat at the sheaves of corn 

 while the waggons are being loaded. Besides which they are 

 chiefly fed on tares which at that time will be ripe and com- 

 paratively rich in albuminoid material. Then rain falls and the 

 harvest operations are suspended ; the horse stands in the stable 

 for a day or so, and an attack of azoturia may be the result. 



" By far the greater number of these cases occur upon the 

 resumption of work after rest, but this is not absolutely necessary, 

 and cases of a mild or chronic form are seen in which no cessation 

 of work has occurred, or in horses which are still at rest, but when 

 this is the case the symptoms are more gi*adual in their develop- 

 ment and differ somewhat from the acute or severer forms of 

 the affection." 



Local influences may have some connection with this complaint, 

 which is common in certain places, and almost unknown in others. 

 It has been remarked that horses which have been fed on hay or 

 grass grown on land that had been manured with an excess of 

 nitrate of soda, are specially liable to it. Robertson has made 

 the same observation ^vith regard to horses fed on large quantities 

 of ripe tares, pease and beans. Maize appears much less " heating " 

 in this respect. 



This disease has obtained its name of azoturia from the idea (which has been 

 proved to be erroneous by Friedberger, Frohner, McFadyean, and Schindelka) 

 that the urine of horses suffering from it habitually contains an abnormal 

 amount of nitrogenous matter. As a rule, the urine of horses affected with 

 it becomes albuminous only in the later stages of this complaint, and then 

 from inflammation of the kidneys. We may look upon this disease as an 

 inflammation of certain muscles of the hind quarters, due to irritation caused 

 by broken-up material in the blood. It has been found that at the beginning 

 of this disease, and even before the manifestation of its symptoms, the number 

 of the red corpuscles of the blood is much above normal (sometimes twice as 

 many), and that it gradually comes down towards the usual standard during 

 the progress of the malady. " In view of this discovery, it would appear that 

 the disease has its starting-point during the period of unwonted rest and 

 liberal diet, which has the effect of raising the number of red cells in the 

 blood. As soon as the horse is taken out to exercise, the destruction of the 

 superabundant corpuscles set,s in, and the products of this destruction are 

 accountable for the remarkable train of symptoms. The colouring matter of 

 the destroyed red cells becomes partly dissolved in the plasma, is carried to 

 the kidneys, and there excreted with the urine ; while part takes the form 

 of minute granules, which become arrested in the capillaries of certain muscles, 



