MIDLAND COUNTIES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 45 
such as the change from poor to luxuriant pastures, or partaking of 
plants whose acrid properties irritate and inflame the mucous sur- 
face of those organs in which digestion is carried on (viz., the sto- 
machs), and thus interfere with their natural functions, and second- 
arily through them the kidneys. Professor Simonds says, he has 
known it occur from the substitution of cotton cake for oilcake, 
which from its coarseness causes diarrhoea, and thus by impairing 
the digestive system lays the foundation for this disease. 
But the conclusion, I think, we must most of us come to is that 
the immediate cause of the malady is-^-a vitiated condition of the 
blood produced by the quality of the food, which food upsets the 
whole digestive system, and through that alters and deteriorates the 
condition of the blood and other fluids of the body. 
Symptoms . — The disease is generally ushered in with diarrhoea, 
followed by a constant endeavour on the part of the animal to 
urinate, the fluid of which is a claret colour, becoming deeper as the 
disease proceeds; then the very opposite of diarrhoea takes place, viz., 
the non-passage of fseculent matter, but which is not so much from 
a constipated as a torpid state of the bowels, because the colon and 
rectum after diarrhoea are generally empty, so that though there 
may be a constant straining, there is really nothing in the shape of 
faeces to come away (and in the treatment of many of the diseases we 
are called in to attend, this should be particularly borne in mind, espe- 
cially when about to administer purgatives, and those of a drastic kind). 
The pulse, which is at first quick and small, becomes nearly im- 
perceptible, and the beating of the heart is easily increased in its 
rapidity by alarm. 
The secretions generally are suspended. In cows the lacteal fluid 
has an unusually yellow tinge. The skin of the udder, and par- 
ticularly on the inside of the thighs, where it is thin, and naturally of 
a whitish colour, has also a yellow hue. This yellowness, says 
Professor Simonds, is not from the absorption of bile, but from 
a reddish-coloured liquor sanguinis flowing in the capillaries. 
Upon this point the minds of veterinarians are at variance, and I 
feel myself incompetent to satisfactorily answer the question ; 
nevertheless, with all due deference to Professor Simonds, I am 
inclined to differ from him, and to think that this yellowness is due 
to the absorption of bile into the system. 
But I will now for a moment direct your attention to the most 
prominent and striking symptom of the disease, viz., the red urine, 
dwelling for a short time upon the nature of the discharge eva- 
cuated, and the cause of its peculiar colour. This, as we have pre- 
viously seen, does not commence in the earliest stage of the malady, 
but generally sets in after the diarrhoea has ceased ; it is first of 
a claret colour, gradually deepening as the disease proceeds, becom- 
ing in the latter stages of a dark-brown Colour, and still deepening 
until it has become nearly black ; hence it has been termed at this 
stage black water, but which in reality is the concluding stage of 
red water, and is considered by many practitioners to be a favor- 
able symptom ; but of this I will speak hereafter. 
