CHAPTER IX. 
THE URINARY ORGANS—THEIR ACCIDENTS AND THEIR DISEASES. 
NEPHRITIS OR INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 
Tue straddling gait is not peculiar to any one disorder. It denotes no 
more than the region in which the affection is to be sought; but it does 
not characterize any special disease. Therefore so general a trait is 
THE GENERAL SYMPTOM WHICH ATTENDS ALL DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 
placed at the head of the chapter treating of ailments confined to the 
urinary organs, so that he who perceives the horse assume this position 
may at once recognize that part of the body in which the disorder resides. 
Nephritis is not so common at the present time as it used to be for- 
merly; the growing information of the people has in some measure altered 
the practices of the stable. The master is not quite so much the slave of 
a groom’s ignorance as was once universally the case; the animal is no 
longer regarded as a mysterious creature which it required a particular 
education to understand. Urine balls, therefore, are no longer regularly 
kept in every loft. Niter—one ounce of “sweet nitre,” or, to speak cor- 
rectly, an overdose of harsh saltpeter—may, however, be still permitted, 
and by particular horse proprietors regarded as a charm against every 
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