360 PEELIMINAET EEMABKS. 



channel whicli conducts the urine from the bladder to -without, 

 •when the bladder expels its contents. 



The diseases and derangements of this class of organs are 

 not numerous. Those of the rarer kind, such as Calculi of the 

 Bladder, I have omitted to describe in the present treatise : so 

 rare, indeed, is this affection, and one or two others which 

 might be named, that many of the oldest practitioners in the 

 profession have never seen a case. 



The urine is a fluid of a peculiar character. It is composed 

 of a number of substances ; and, without doubt, the condition 

 of this fluid will be greatly altered, and the alteration hold a 

 definite relation to the pathological changes which the organism 

 may from time to time undergo ; but the intimate nature of 

 these changes, and their relation to disease are questions which, 

 up to the present hour, are unknown. Upon a future occasion, 

 however, it is my intention to treat upon this matter, and 

 to give to the world the few facts and observations which I 

 have been enabled to obtain in this obscure department of 

 veterinary pathology. 



The kidneys are subject to inflammation, and to softening 

 of their substance ; also to hemorrhage, arising from injuries 

 of a mechanical kind, from softening of their substance, and 

 from excessive congestion of a temporary character. They are 

 also liable to sympathetic disturbance, which causes an inordi- 

 nate secretion of urine ; and also to the formation of calculi 

 within the pelvic cavity of the organ. 



The bladder is liable to inflammation, to ulceration of its 

 tissues, and to the consequent escape of the urine into the 

 pelvic and abdominal cavities ;* also to hemorrhage, to irritation 



* I once treated u case of Peritonitis, which afterwards was proved to 

 have arisen in consequence of an ulcer within the bladder allowing the urine 

 to pass into the pelvic and abdominal cavities. 



