66 



The disease being mainly due to direct injury, treatment will consist 

 first in removing such cause whenever possible, and then in applying 

 general and local styptics. Irritants in food must be avoided, sprains 

 appropriately treated, and stone in bladder or urethra removed. Then 

 give mucilaginous drinks (slippery elm, linseed tea) freely, and styptics 

 (tincture of chloride of iron, 3 drams ; acetate of lead, one-half dram ; 

 tannic acid, one-half dram ; or oil of turpentine, 1 ounce). If the dis- 

 charge is abundant apply cold water to the loins and keep the animal 

 perfectly still. 



HEMOGLOBINURIA— AZOTURIA—AZOTAEMIA— POISONING BY ALBU- 

 MINOIDS. 



Like diabetes, this is rather a disease of the liver and blood-forming 

 functions than of the kidney, but as prominent symptoms are loss of 

 control over the hind limbs and the passage of ropy and dark-colored 

 urine, the vulgar idea is that it is a disorder of the urinary organs. It 

 is a complex affection directly connected with a plethora in the blood of 

 nitrogenized constituents, with extreme nervous and muscular disorder 

 and the excretion of a dense reddish or brownish urine. It is directly 

 connected with high feeding, especially on highly nitrogenized food 

 (oats, beans, pease, vetches, cotton-seed meal), and with a period of idle- 

 ness in the stall under full rations. The disease is never seen at pas- 

 ture, rarely under constant daily work, even though the feeding be high, 

 and the attack is usually precipitated by taking the horse from the 

 stable and subjecting it to exercise or work. The poisoning is not pres- 

 ent when taken from the stable, as the horse is likely to be noticeably 

 lively and spirited, but he will usually succumb under the first hundred 

 yards or half mile of exercise. It seems as if the aspiratory power of 

 the chest under the sudden exertion and accelerated breathing speedily 

 drew from the gorged liver and abdominal veins (portal) the accumu- 

 lated store of nitrogenous matter in an imperfectly oxidized or elabo- 

 rated condition, and as if the blood, surcharged with these materials, 

 was unable to maintain the healthy functions of the nerve centers and 

 muscles. A peculiar anatomical feature of the horse's liver doubtless 

 contributes to this, namely, the persistence, throughout life, of several 

 •considerable veins leading directly from the veins of the stomach and 

 intestines (portal veins) into the posterior vena cava and heart. 



This condition, common to fcEtal mammals, persists through life in 

 the solipeds only, among our domestic animals. In all others the portal 

 vein has no communication with the vena cava except through the 

 capillaries of the liver. With the direct channel the rich, crude blood 

 coming from the intestines is drawn at once into the general circulation 

 unchanged by the secretion in the liver and the chemical changes 

 therein effected. Hence this disease is peculiar to solipeds. It has been 

 noticed rather more frequently in mares than horses, attributable, per- 

 haps, to the nervous excitement attendant on heat and to the fact that 



