362 DISEASES OF THE URINARY APPARATUS. 



of soda. When the heart weakness becomes alarming, we must 

 resort to digitalis, to calFeine, etc. 



The eclamptic attacks must be combated with bromide of potas- 

 sium, chloral hydrate, and chloroform inhalations. 



Concerning astringents or styptics (tannin, sugar of lead, sulphate 

 of iron, etc.), very much used formerly against acute nephritis, 

 whilst theoretically we attribute to them a constrictive action upon 

 the vessels, and consequently an antiphlogistic effect, their practical 

 utility remains to be demonstrated. We have often used cinchona 

 bark (as an astringent and antifebrile agent), and we have obtained 

 encouraging results from it. 



Chronic Nephritis. 



Etiolog'y. Sometimes chronic nephritis is developed from the 

 onset ; at other times, but less frequently, it follows acute nephritis. 

 Its causes are still less known in our animals than in man. They 

 seem to consist especially of irritations of a chemical or parasitic 

 nature exerted directly upon the renal tissue. Among the chemical 

 irritants we must particularly mention copper and lead salts, which, 

 according to Ellenberger and Hofraeister, give rise in the course of 

 time to special inflammatory alterations of the tissue of the kidney 

 (similarly to the action of alcohol and uric acid in the human sub- 

 ject). As noxious agents of a parasitic nature, we must mention, 

 in the first place, the bacilli of glanders, then certain microbes 

 which after having penetrated the bloodvessels are eliminated with 

 the urine ; these, in passing through the kidneys, set up in them a 

 chronic phlegmasia. It is thus that we can explain the frequency 

 of the disease in the cow — the kidneys of this animal, after parturi- 

 tion, being exposed to the action of septic substances coming from 

 the uterus. In the horse, intestinal and laryngeal ulcerations, etc. 

 (Lustig), also bronchial catarrh accompanied by bronchiectasis and 

 emphysema (Frohner) constitute so many portals of entry for the 

 microbic agents which give rise to this condition. In man, we 

 often observe chronic nephritis in the course of infectious diseases 

 of slow evolution, also chronic endocarditis, etc. Chronic nephritis 

 of the horse is sometimes of embolic nature ; it is then related to an 

 aneurism with thrombosis oî the anterior mesenteric artery and of 

 the renal arteries (Lustig). In old animals, as in aged human beings, 

 the senile vascular alterations (parenchymatous degeneration) seem 

 to exercise a real influence upon the generation of certain chronic 



