86 DISEASES or THE HOKSE. 



soothed by dram doses of bromide of potassium. Boiled flaxseed 

 may be added to the drinking water, and also thrown into the rectum 

 as an injection, and blankets saturated with hot water should be per- 

 sistently applied to the loins. This may be followed by a very thin 

 pulp of the best grouild mustard made with tepid water, rubbed in 

 against the direction of the hair and covered up with paper and a 

 blanket. This may be kept on for an hour, or until the skin thickens 

 and the hair stands erect. It may then be rubbed or sponged off and 

 the blanket reapplied. When the action of the bowels has been 

 started it may be kept up by a daily dose of 2 or 3 ounces of 

 Glauber's salts. 



During recovery a course of bitter tonics (nux vomica 1 scruple, 

 ground gentian root 4 drams) should be given. The patient should 

 also be guarded against cold, wet, and any active exertion for some 

 time after all active symptoms have subsided. 



CHRONIC INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 



Causes. — Chronic inflammation of the kidneys is more commonly 

 associated with albumen and casts in the urine than the acute form, 

 and in some instances these conditions of the urine may be the only 

 prominent symptoms of the disease. Though it may supervene on 

 blows, injuries, and exposures, it is much more commonly connected 

 with faulty conditions of the system — as indigestion, heart disease, 

 lung or liver disease, imperfect blood formation, or assimilation ; in 

 short, it is rather the attendant on a constitutional infirmity than on 

 a simple local injury. 



It may be associated with various forms of diseased kidneys, as 

 shrinkage (atrophy), increase (hypertrophy), softening, red conges- 

 tion, white enlargement, etc., so that it forms a group of diseases 

 rather than a disease by itself. 



Symptoms. — The symptoms may include stiffness, weakness, and 

 increased sensibility of the loins, and modified secretion of urine 

 (increase or suppression) , or the flow may be natural. Usually it 

 contains albumen, the amount furnishing a fair criterion of the grav- 

 ity of the affection, and microscopic casts, also* most abundant in bad 

 cases. Dropsy, manifested in swelled legs, is a significant symptom, 

 and if the effusion takes place along the lower line of the body or in 

 chest or abdoinen, the significance is increased. A scurfy, unthrifty 

 skin, lack-luster hair, inability to sustain severe or continued exer- 

 tion, poor or irregular appetite, loss of fat and flesh, softness of the 

 muscles, and pallor of the eyes and nose are equally suggestive. So 

 are skin eruptions of various kinds. Any one or more of these symp- 

 toms would warrant an examination of the urine for albumen and 

 casts, the finding of which signifies renal inflammation. 



Treatment of these cases is not always satisfactory, as the cause is 



