85 



escaping through the other. But the advantage is more apparent than 

 real, as the retention of the water until the inagtna has been shaken 

 up and mixed with it hastens greatly its complete evacuation. To 

 lyrevent the formation of a new deposit any fault iu feeding (dry grain 

 and hay with privation of water, excess of beaus, peas, wheat bran, etc.) 

 and disorders of stomach, liver, and lungs must be corrected. Give 

 abundance of soft drinking water, encouraging the animal to drink by 

 a handful of salt daily; let the food be laxative, consisting largely of 

 roots, apples, pumpkins, ensilage, and give daily in the drinking water 

 a dram of carbonate of potash or soda. Powdered gentian root (3 

 drams daily) will also serve to restore the tone of the stomach and 

 system at large. 



Urethral calculus. — Stone in the urethra. — This is less frequent than 

 in cattle and sheep, owing to the larger size of the urethra in the horse 

 and the absence of the S-shaped curve and vermiform appendix. The 

 calculi arrested in the urethra are never formed there, but consist of 

 cystic calculi which have been small enough to pass through the neck 

 of the bladder, but too large to pass through the whole length of the 

 uretlira and escape. Such calculi therefore are primarily formed either 

 in the bladder or kidney, and have the chemical composition of the 

 other calculi found iu those organs. They may be arrested at any point 

 of the urethra, from the neck of the bladder back to the bend of the 

 tube beneath the anus, and from that point down to the extremity of 

 the penis. I have found them most frequently in the papilla on the 

 extreme end of the i)enis, and immediately behind this. 



The symptoms are violent straining to urinate, but without any dis- 

 charge, or with the escape of water in drops only. Examination of the 

 end of the penis will detect the swelling of the papilla or the urethra 

 behind it, and the iiresence of a hard mass iu the center. A probe in- 

 serted into the urethra will strike against the gritty calculus. If the 

 stone has been arrested higher up its position may be detected as a 

 small, hard, sensitive knot on the line of the urethra, in the median line 

 of the lower surface of the penis, or on the floor of the pelvis in the 

 median line from the neck of the bladder back to the bend of the urethra 

 beneath the anus. In any case the urethra between the neck of the 

 bladder and the point of obstruction is likely to be filled with fluid, and 

 to feel like a distended tube fluctuating on pressure. 



Treatment may be begun by an attemi:)t to extract the calculi by 

 manipulation of the papilla on the end of the peuis. This failing, the 

 calculus may be seized with a pair of fine-pointed forceps and with- 

 drawn from the urethra; or, if necessary, a probe pointed knife may 

 be inserted and the urethra slightly dilated, or even laid open, and the 

 stone removed. If the stone has been arrested higher up it must be 

 extracted by a direct incision through the walls of the urethra and 

 down upon the nodule. If in the free (protractile) portion of the penis, 

 that organ is to be withdrawn from its sheath until the nodule is ex- 



