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. |”— Veter7- 
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 perineum ; calculi inthe 
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. 9 
