340 BOVINE PATHOLOGY. 



when pain is excessive ; it acts as an anodyne and relaxes 

 spasm of muscular fibres. 



The bladder is subject to several serious disorders. 

 Of these the most important are associated with either 

 retention, incontinence, strangury, and dysury — symptoms 

 of disorder mostly dependent on several causes. 



Retention op Urine must be distinguished from IscJiury, 

 In the latter case no urine is secreted, as may be seen in 

 nephritis. Retention is non-passage, attributable either to 

 obstruction or to want of expelling power. We are fre- 

 quently told by cowmen that the patient has not passed 

 any water for some time ; this must be interpreted as ^' has 

 not been seen to urinate,'^ it generally is a false alarm. 

 The retention may be due to loss of power of the bladder, 

 depending on nervous lesions, as in apoplectic cases j to 

 spasm of the neck of the organ, with or without inflamma- 

 tion ; blocking up of the urethral passage by calculi or 

 lymph j the pressure of a hardened mass of faeces in the rec- 

 tum may have this effect. The secretion of urine continues, 

 the longer, therefore, this state remains the more urgent 

 the symptoms ; but in cases due to nervous lesions accumu- 

 lation may take place to a suflBcient extent to rupture the 

 bladder without any appreciable signs of discomfort. 

 Under other circumstances the animal is very uneasy, 

 lashes the tail about, shifts the hind limbs, and sometimes 

 rises and lies down again frequently. He repeatedly en- 

 deavours to micturate, and perhaps looks round at the 

 flank. There is always an anxious expression of counte- 

 nance. Exploration jper rectum et vaginam discloses 

 the distended state of the bladder, and also ascertains 

 whether any cause exists in either of these parts to account 

 for the obstruction. Sometimes simple pressure on the 

 organ will rouse it to action, a point of great importance 

 in the male, in whom this accident most frequently occurs, 

 for the sigmoid flexure of the penis of this animal com- 

 plicates the passing of the catheter, which is the next 

 measure which suggests itself. The same form of catheter 

 is used for both male and female in cattle practice. It is 

 a metal tube, about 24 inches long, and with a calibre of 



