DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 151 
a powerful determining cause. The condition is marked in many 
mares during the period of heat. 
An oleaginous laxative (castor oil 1 pint) will serve to remove any 
cause of irritation in the digestive organs, and a careful dieting will 
avoid continued irritation by acrid vegetable agents. The bladder 
should be examined to see that there is no stone or other cause of irri- 
tation, and the sheath and penis should be washed with soapsuds, any 
sebaceous matter removed from the bilocular cavity at the end of the 
penis, and the whole lubricated with sweet oil. Irritable mares 
should be induced to urinate before they are harnessed, and those 
that clutch the lines under the tail may have the tail set high by 
cutting the cords on its lower surface, or it may be prevented from 
getting over the reins by having a strap carried from its free end to 
the breeching. Those proving troublesome when “ in heat” may have 
4-dram doses of bromid of potassium, or they may be served by the 
male or castrated. Sometimes irritability may be lessened by daily 
doses of belladonna extract (1 dram), or a better tone may be given 
to the parts by balsam copaiba (1 dram). 
DISEASED GROWTHS IN THE BLADDER. 
These may be of various kinds, malignant or simple. In the horse 
I have found villous growths from the mucous membrane especially 
troublesome. They may be attached to the mucous membrance by a 
narrow neck or by a broad base covering a great part of the organ. 
Symptoms.—The symptoms are frequent straining, passing of urine 
and blood with occasionally gravel. An examination of the bladder 
with the hand in the rectum will detect the new growth, which may 
be distinguished from a hard, resistant stone. In mares, in which the 
finger can be inserted into the bladder, the recognition is still more 
satisfactory. The polypi attached by narrow necks may be removed 
by surgical operation, but for those with broad attachments treatment 
is eminently unsatisfactory. 
DISCHARGE OF URINE BY THE NAVEL, OR PERSISTENT URACHUS. 
This occurs only in the newborn, and consists in the nonclosure of 
the natural channel (urachus), through which the urine is discharged 
into the outer water bag (allantois) in fetal life. At that early stage 
of the animal existence the bladder resembles a long tube, which is 
prolonged through the navel string and opens into the outermost of 
the two water bags in which the fetus floats. In this way the urine 
is prevented from entering the inner water bag (amnion), where it 
would mingle with the liquids, bathing the skin of the fetus and 
cause irritation. At birth this channel closes up, and the urine takes 
4. 
