Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 125 



" A small quantity of the contents of the bladder, having 

 the appearance of pus, was also sent ; the colour and con- 

 sistency of the fluid, however, were found under the micro- 

 scope to depend not upon purulent contamination, but 

 entirely upon the presence of an abundant precipitate of 

 ammonio-magnesian phosphate, the prismatic crystals of 

 which were very large and well-defined. A quantity of the 

 same deposit covered the lining membrane of the bladder, 

 the walls of which were thickened. The pelvis of the right 

 kidney was much dilated, but these organs were otherwise 

 healthy. 



" Messrs. Gowing's view of the frequency of calculous 

 concretions in the dog is supported by the results of their 

 own practice. We are indebted to them for several very 

 interesting cases, but none more so than the one which is 

 recorded in the present number of the journal.]" — Veteri- 

 narian^ 



RETENTION OF URINE. 



This may proceed from paralysis of either the muscular 

 coat of the bladder, the result of protracted distension, and 

 though this is rare in dogs, who by habit are continually 

 urinating, yet there are some who, from customary cleanli- 

 ness, would, if confined, retain their urine to their own 

 pain rather than misbehave themselves ; or it may occur 

 from compression of the urethra by enlargement of the 

 prostate gland, or bruises to the perinsum ; calculi in the 

 urethra or bladder, urethritis, stricture, blood-clots, diseased 

 penis, imperforate urethra, paralysis, may each severally 

 act as causes of retained urine. 



Mr. Blaine records a case of death in a Newfoundland 

 dog, from the bladder of which he took forty or fifty caculi. 

 He observes : " Death in this instance was occasioned by 

 the obstruction to the passage of urine by means of these 

 stones." 



* In June, 1881, I performed the first recorded case in English 

 literature of Canine Lithotomy On the St. Bernard bitch " Mab." (See 

 "Accidents and Operations.")— J.W.H. 



