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DISEASES OF THE UBINABY APPARATUS. 



Acute Nephritis. 



Etiology. Acute nephritis is observed in all the different 

 domestic species, but particularly the horse, ox, and dog, in which 

 animals it is produced by the most varied causes.^ It may succeed 

 congestion of the kidney or be determined by traumatic influences, 

 such as blows and injuries upon the back (Reboul), falls, violent 

 efforts while pulling, too abrupt turns performed by saddle-horses 

 while at a rapid gait, etc. It is at times produced by the action of 

 cold: the intimate physiological connection which exists between 

 the skin and the kidneys, and the bad effects of the suppression of 

 cutaneous functions, sufficiently explain the origin of nephritis 

 à frigore, 



[The action of cold when associated with great nervous excite- 

 ment, as fear of steam, etc., may frequently be the cause of an acute 

 nephritis. I have seen several unquestionable examples of this, 

 one occurring in my own driving horse, which had been tied where 

 he could hear escaping steam, of which he was very much afraid. 

 After being exposed to this influence for over half an hour on a 

 cold day there developed an acute nephritis with diarrhea and loss 

 of appetite. — w. l. z.] 



It also happens frequently in the course of infectious diseases ; it 

 is then the result of renal elimination of irritating products. Be- 

 nign infectious nephritis leads only to turbid , tumefaction and to 

 fatty degeneration of the renal epithelium. The septic and pyemic 

 processes, such as puerperal septicemia of the cow, typhoid fever of 

 the horse, and also, but more rarely, contagious pneumonia, often 

 induce acute infections nephritis. We have seen a horse which was 

 recovering from contagious pneumonia die from a double intense 

 acute nephritis. In a case of serious angina of a horse, Fried- 

 berger has seen acute nephritis and septic infection occur; Siedam- 



the kidney known under the name of large white kidney. 2. Chronic interstitial or 

 sclerous nephritis, which affects particularly the connective tissue and the vessels, 

 and which leads to the small red contracted or atrophied kidney. 3. Mixed nephritis, 

 in which the epithelia, the connective tissue, and the vessels are affected simulta- 

 neously. — N. D, T. 



1 Parenchymatous nephritis has been observed among birds by Larcher. In cer- 

 tain cases the inflamed kidney is smooth, its capsule thin and easy to detach, and the 

 subjacent tissue, the tint of which is dark yellow, is strewn with small bloody spots; 

 in others the surface of the organ is dented, irregular, rough to the touch, and the 

 opaque and thickened capsule strongly adheres to the subjacent tissue, the tint of 

 which is pale yellow, and the consistence firmer than in the normal state. — n. d. t. 



