AZOTURIA. 
255 
AZOTURIA. 
An Essay read before a meeting of the Veterinary Association of the State of 
Ohio, held at Cincinnati, July 26th, 1888. 
By A. V. Deer, V.S. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen: The subject that T have 
chosen to bring before this meeting is a disease that is of vast im¬ 
portance to the veterinary profession, as well as all of those that 
have an interest in the equine race. It is a disease that has given 
rise to quite a diversity of opinion as to its cause. 
A number of writers have written and tried to point out the 
true pathology of this disease, but we are still in the dark as to the 
cause of it, and it has been called by different names. It has been 
termed, by some writers, albuminaria, and others hysteria, and 
some hemogloburia, and by the Germans u swaz herwindi,” and 
to-day it is called azoturia. We were taught at the college that 
it was due to a hypernitrogenous condition of the blood in the 
system in general. And I understand that the Professor of the 
American Veterinary College taught his pupils that it was due to 
the liver failing to transform the albuminoids into urea. But I 
will have to differ in my opinion from the theories of both our 
worthy Professors. If the former means to say it is due to a 
hyponitrogenous condition of the blood in the system in general, 
I would agree to a certain extent; and as to the other, I cannot 
agree at all, for the liver has nothing to do with this disease, 
which I will try to prove to you before I close my paper on this 
subject. But my theory as to the pathology of this disease, or 
the elements that cause it, lead me to believe that it is due to an 
excess of carbonic dioxide, formed in the system from the waste 
products that are given off from the muscular system, and the 
nutritive material that is taken into the circulation to replace the 
waste which the muscular system undergoes while in action. And 
to fully understand this, we must become conversant with the 
mechanism of the equine system and the physiology of its 
action. 
Let us take a physiological view of the equine, and what a 
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