] 28 
SUGAR IN THE URINE OF THE HORSE. 
have been? And now that a knowledge of more delicate 
methods of detection has been arrived at, it may be as well to 
apply them. In all cases of suspected sugar in the urine of 
the horse that have fallen under our notice, we confess that 
we have been unable to detect it, although we have readily 
done so in diabetic urine obtained from the human subject ; 
nor was Dr. Prout more successful than ourselves. 
We incline to the opinion that this secretion, and its 
deposits, have not been studied by us as they deserve to be. 
Surely they must be indicative of certain alterations that are 
going on in the organism, designated disease, and a familiarity 
with them would enable us to diagnose with a greater degree 
of certainty than at times we are wont to do. It is true that 
the laws of chemistry largely obtain here, and by them we 
can alone explain many, if not most, of the changes that are 
taking place; it is by their aid also that we shall be directed 
to the means to be adopted to check the morbid action setup, 
and thus bring about the restoration of health. The science 
of chemistry is now recognised as an integral part of the 
education of the student of veterinary medicine, and we have, 
therefore, a right to expect from it no little gain, in its appli¬ 
cation to animal physiology and pathology. Hitherto it 
may be said that but little fruit has been yielded; the held, 
however, is one that will well repay the cultivator, and we 
shall patiently and confidently wait the result. 
When it is borne in mind that the kidneys, in common 
with some other organs, are the depurators of the blood, 
eliminating from the system the soluble ashes of the effete 
tissues, and thus separating from the vital fluid such matters 
as are of no further use in the animal economy, or which, if 
retained, might act as a poison to the organism, it is no 
wonder that their peculiar secretion should often prove com¬ 
plex and variable in its nature, and the compounds obtained 
from it be somewhat numerous. Not that these alwavs, and 
of necessity, pre-exist in the blood, for we know this is not 
the case; their elements only are found there, the combina¬ 
tion of which takes place through the prevalence of established 
and well-known laws, either within or without the body. 
“A knowledge,” says Dr. Hassall, ‘ ; of the characters and 
composition of the urine reveals to us the nature of most of 
those chemical, physiological, and pathological changes which 
are continually in progress in the system, and at a knowledge 
of which, but for the urine, it would have been difficult to 
have arrived.” 
Moreover, we must not leave altogether unnoticed the 
reciprocity that exists between the kidneys and the skin, an 
