Aaite Prostatitis and Hyperemia of the Prostate. 271 



Diffuse (Interstitial) Prostatitis shows, in addition to the 

 general swelling and njuco-purulent discharge, a considerable 

 exudate into the interstitial tissue, with increased tension and 

 resistance of its substance. It is associated during life with more 

 fever and constitutional disturbance than the simple catarrhal or 

 follicular form. 



In Circumscribed Prostatic Abscess we find, in addition to 

 the general hypersemia and swelling, a much more prominent 

 local swelling, the seat of intense inflammation, at first firm and 

 resistant and later softer and fluctuating in the center, which is 

 filled with pus. This may have its origin in the follicular form, 

 the pus becoming shut up in a follicle and gradually increasing 

 until it bursts into the urethra, the bladder, the rectum, the peri- 

 toneum, or pelvic fascia and perineum. In other cases it becomes 

 •complicated by pyaemia and secondary abscesses. 



Miliary Abscesses may be comparatively few in number or 

 generally diffused through the prostate, and are often the result 

 •of a pre-existing general infection. 



Symptoms. As the disease usually begins as a local infection 

 the first symptoms are, as a rule, unattended by fever, which, 

 however, appears in two or three days as the local lesions in- 

 •crease. The urine may be passed frequently in small amounts, 

 or there may be frequent straining without passage of urine, the 

 pressure of the swollen prostate, with or without spasms of the 

 sphincter vescicse, causing retention. It is no uncommon thing 

 to find the last urine passed of a milky or glairy character and, 

 ■coagula moulded in the prostatic canals may at times be found. 

 The presence of spermatic crystals, fusiform, with very pointed 

 extremities, and precipitated on the addition of ammonium phos- 

 phate, is characteristic of prostatic fluid. (Fiirbringer). In 

 ■other cases there is incontinence, the urine dribbling away in- 

 voluntarily as the animal walks, and especially if anything occurs 

 to excite him. Micturition may be painless or attended by acute 

 suffering, which causes a sudden arrest of the flow. Defecation 

 is attended with difficulty and more or less pain, and obstinate 

 constipation is likely to set in. The animal is dull, spiritless and 

 ^eeks to lie undisturbed. Pressure on the perineum is painful 

 and exercise aggravates the symptoms. Rectal examination by 

 the hand or finger according to the size of the animal, reveals 



