INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDEE. 441 



TREATMENT.— Put the horse on cooling food. Give linseed 

 mashes, and substitute linseed tea for water as his drink. Give a 

 mild dose of aloes and one drachm of strong tincture of iron 

 (p. 625) in water twice a day for a fortnight. In India, a deooction 

 of the leaves of the sissoo or seesum tree is a favourite native 

 remedy. About half a bucketful of the leaves is taken, water is 

 poured over them, they are mashed up between the hands, and 

 are allowed to soak in the water for nine or ten hours ; the fluid 

 should then be strained off and given tO' the horse to drink. The 

 mixtur-e of a couple of handfuls of unrefined sugar (termed c/u<ir 

 in Hindustanee) will make this drink palatable to him. This 

 mucilaginous fluid acts as an emollient in soothing irritation. 



The rational© of the foregoing treatment is as f pllows : — The 

 purgative is given tO' draw the blood away from the inflamed 

 urinary passages ; the strong tincture of the perchloride of iron 

 acts as an astringent in causing contraction of the congested blood- 

 vessels of the affected part, and thereby checks the flow of blood ; 

 and the linseed and sissoo are soothing agents. 



If the urine be very dark-coloured without the presence of blood, 

 it may generally be concluded that this condition is due to too 

 high feeding. The treatment should be a full dose of physio 

 (aloes) ; cooling diet in very small quantities ; and f oz. of nitre 

 daily in the food or water. As the injurious substances which 

 accumulate in the blood from too high feeding, are gradually got 

 rid of along with the urine ; we give nitre in order to stimulate 

 the kidneys to remove them as quickly as possible out of the 

 system. 



Inflammation of the Bladder. 



It is probable that the only causes of this disease are the 

 absorption into the system — by internal administration or external 

 application — of irritating poisons, such as cantharides or croton ; 

 the excretion of noxious matters from the blood ; and injury. 

 Fatal consequences have, sometimes, occurred from blistering " all 

 roimd." In warm weather, the urinary organs are more liable to 

 become affected by blisters than when the temperature of the air 

 is low. The chief reason for this is, that in summer, owing to 

 the increased action of the skin, less urine is secreted, and, conse- 

 quently, the irritating matter, being less diluted, cannot be re- 

 moved from the bladder as quickly as when the amount of urine 

 is abundant, as in cold weather. Besides, the higher the tempera- 

 ture of the air, the more rapidly do the absorbents take up the 

 active principle of the blister. 



Mares, at certain seasons, owing to sexual causes, are specially 

 liable to tliis affection from blisters. 



