THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXVIII, 
No. 334. 
OCTOBER, 1855. 
Fourth Series, 
No. 10. 
Communications and Cases. 
ON CALCULAR CONCRETIONS AFFECTING 
HORSES IN INDIA. 
By J. Western, M.R.C.Y.S., Horse Artillery, Bangalore. 
Dear Sirs, — In the Veterinarian for last March there is a 
well-described case of Cystic Calculus, with a successful 
operation for its extraction, by Professor Spooner. He says, 
p. 125, “ occasionally crystals of oxalate of lime are found 
associated with those concretions taken from the horse. 
Especially is this the case in those specimens forwarded from 
India.” Fie then asks, “Will our friends inform us if cal- 
culous affections are common in that country, and what are 
the probable causes that give rise to them ?” 
I have been now nearly twenty-eight years in active 
service in this country, and strange to say, have never met 
with a single case of Calculus, either intestinal, renal, or 
cystic, and yet I need scarcely add I have never allowed a 
strict post mortem to escape me. This will answer both in- 
quiries ; but still I feel it due to say that I have heard from 
other practitioners of cases of both intestinal and cystic cal- 
culi, but never renal ; although I see no reason why such 
should not occur here as well as elsewhere. 
I am glad to see the microscope is becoming one of the 
instruments in use with the profession, for it opens paths to 
us of information that otherwise must be closed. I have for 
a long time been engaged in the examination of the urine, 
under various circumstances, and am fully aware of the value 
of the instrument. Professor Spooner says, in the paper 
above quoted, that crystals of oxalate of lime are sometimes 
found in the urine of the horse. I have not hitherto been 
successful in meeting with these, although 1 have anxiously 
xxviii. 72 
