138 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



springs by the human victims of gravel. If they had swallowed the 

 same number of quarts of pure water at home and distributed it at 

 suitable intervals over each day, they would have benefited largely 

 without a visit to the springs. 



It follows from what has been just said that a succulent diet, includ- 

 ing a large amount of water (gruels, sloppy mashes, turnips, beets, 

 potatoes, apples, pumpkins, ensilage, succulent grasses), is an impor- 

 tant factor in the relief of the milder forms of stone and gravel. 



Prevention. — Prevention of calculus especially demands this supply 

 of water and watery rations on all soils and in all conditions in which 

 there is a predisposition to this disease. It must also be sought by 

 attempts to obviate all those conditions mentioned above as causative 

 of the malady. Sometimes good rain water can be furnished in lime- 

 stone districts, but putrid or bad smelling rain water is to be avoided 

 as probably more injurious than that from the limestone. Unsuccess- 

 ful attempts have been made to dissolve calculi by alkaline salts and 

 mineral acids, respectively, but their failure as a remedy does not 

 necessarily condemn them as preventives. One dram of caustic 

 potash or of hydrochloric acid may be given daily in the drinking 

 water. In diametrically opposite ways these attack and decompose 

 the less soluble salts and form new ones which are more soluble 

 and therefore little disposed to precipitate in the solid form. Both 

 are beneficial as increasing the secretion of urine. In cases where 

 the diet has been too highly charged with phosphates (wheat bran, 

 etc.), these aliments must be restricted and water allowed ad libitum. 

 Where the crystals passed with the urine are the sharp angular 

 (octahedral) ones of oxalate of lime, then the breathing should be 

 made more active by exercise, and any disease of the lungs subjected 

 to appropriate treatment. If the crystals are triangular prisms of 

 ammonia-magnesium phosphate or star-like forms with feathery rays, 

 the indications are to withhold the food or water that abounds in 

 magnesia and check the fermentation in the urine by attempts to 

 destroy its bacteria. In the latter direction plenty of pure water, 

 diuretics, and a daily dose of oil of turpentine in milk, or a dose thrice 

 a day of a solution containing one-tenth grain each of biniodide of 

 mercury and iodide of potassium would be indicated. 



In considering the subject of prevention, it must never be forgotten 

 that any disease of a distant organ which determines the passage from 

 the blood into the urine of albumen or any other colloid (uncrystalliz- 

 able) body is strongly provocative of calculus, and should, if possible, 

 be corrected. Apart from cases due to geological formation, faulty 

 feeding, and other causes, the grand preventive of calculus is a long 

 summer's pasturage of succulent grasses, or in winter a diet of ensilage 

 or other succulent food. 



The calculi formed in part of silica demand special notice. This 

 agent is secreted in the urine in the form of silicate of potash and is 



