75 



An oleaginous laxative (castor oil 1 pint) will serve to reuove any 

 cause of irritation in the digestive organs, and a careful dieting will 

 avoid continued irritation by acrid vegetable agents. The bladder 

 should be examined to see that there is no stone or other cause of irri- 

 tation, and the sheath and penis should be washed with soap-suds, any 

 sebaceous matter removed from the bilocular cavity at the end of the 

 penis, and the whole lubricated with sweet oil. Irritable mares should 

 be induced to urinate before they are harnessed, and those that clutch 

 the lines under the tail may have the tail set high by cutting the cords 

 on its lower surface, or it may be prevented getting over the reins by 

 having a strap carried from its free end to the breeching. Those i)rov- 

 ing troublesome when in heat may have 4-dram doses of bromide of 

 potassium, or they may be served by the male or castrated. Sometimes 

 irritability may be lessened by daily doses of belladonna extract (1 

 dram), or a better tone may be given to the parts by balsam copaiba 

 (1 dram). 



DISEASED GROWTHS IN THE BLADDER. 



These may be of various kinds, malignant or simple. In the horse I 

 have found villous growths from the mucous membrane especially 

 troublesome. They may be attached to the mucous membrane by a 

 narrow neck or by a broad base covering a great part of the organ. 

 The symptoms are frequent straining, passing of urine and blood with 

 occasionally gravel. An examination of the bladder with the hand in 

 the rectum will detect the new growth, which may be distinguished from 

 a hard resistant stone. In mares, in which the finger can be inserted 

 into the bladder, the recognition is still more satisfactory. The polypi 

 attached by narrow necks may be removed by surgical operation, but 

 for those with broad attachments treatment is eminently unsatisfac- 

 tory. 



DISCHARGE OF URINE BY THE NAVEL — PERSISTENT URACHUS. 



This occurs only in the new-born, and consists in the non-closure of 

 the natural channel (urachus), through which the urine is discharged 

 into the outer water bag (allautois) in foetal life. At that early stage 

 of the animal existence the bladder resembles a long tube, which is pro- 

 longed through the navel string and opens into the outermost of the 

 two water-bags in which the foetus floats. In this way the urine is i)re- 

 vented from entering the inner water-bag (amnios), where it would 

 mingle with the liquids, bathing the skin of the foetus and cause irrita- 

 tion. At birth this channel closes up, and the urine takes the course 

 normal to extra-uterine life. Imperfect closure is more frequent in 

 males than in females, because of the grefit; length and small caliber of 

 the male urethra and its consequent tendency to obstruction. In the 

 female there may be a discharge of a few drops only at a time, while in 

 the male the urine will be expelled in strong jets coincidently with the 

 contractions of the bladder and walls of the abdomen. 



