m DISEASES OE THE URINARY ORGANS. 
I.—CONGENITAL MALFORMATIONS. 
(!•) FISSURING OF THE MALE MEATUS URINARIUS 
(HYPOSPADIA AND EPISPADIA). 
In consequence of arrested foetal development the meatus urinarius 
may fail to entirely close at some point in its course, and thus present 
the appearance of an open channel. When this occurs in the posterior, 
lower wall, the condition is termed hypospadia, when in the upper, 
anterior wall, epispadia. In animals, neither condition has the same 
significance as in men, as the patients, which are usually dogs or sheep, 
are either destroyed or left without treatment. Horses are seldom 
affected. The abnormal opening may lie just behind the glans, or in 
the course of the meatus nearer the bladder; where it occurs close below 
the anus, the animals are sometimes mistaken for hermaphrodites. 
Hypospadia is not infrequently associated with cloaca formation, as noted 
by Mollei in the case of a dog which appeared to suffer continuously 
fiom sexual excitement. Guinard saw hypospadia in a three year old 
cryptorchid bull. 
_ Treatment is seldom invoked unless the condition is accompanied by 
difficulty in uiination. Ihe natural opening of the meatus urinarius 
may not exist, and if the fissure is insufficient for the discharge of urine, 
it may require enlargement. To prevent reunion of the parts the meatus 
is divided from below upwards in the form of a “Y,” and the edges 
attached to the skin. 
(2.) PERVIOUS URACHUS. 
Up to the time of birth urine is discharged through the urachus, but 
when that closes the urine passes through the meatus urinarius. In a 
few cases the urachus remains open even after birth, and urine is 
discharged thiough it. Burmeister saw this in a three weeks old foal; 
when staling, some urine always flowed from the navel. In a colt 
described by Herbet urine was only passed by the urethra in drops, but 
flowed in a stream from the opening in the navel, which was about i 
inch acioss. Ivauffmann and Blanc found the following conditions 
