SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
455 
our animals during an attack of azoturia, and the treatment of 
the same, to which I beg to call your attention this evening. 
With the symptoms we are all familiar. The suddenness of 
the attack, which comes on while the animal is performing its 
labor; the violent spasmodic contraction of the gluteal muscles, 
preceded by uneasiness and possibly a breaking out of profuse 
perspiration; the cramp of the flexor muscles of the phalanges, 
which causes a knuckling forward of the hind fetlock joints, 
rendering the standing position impossible in the great majority 
of cases ; the retention of urine, and the dark coffee color of 
the same when removed, are objects familiar to all. 
By the processes incident to the great function of nutrition, the 
animal receives sustenance mainly from two great classes of food, 
viz., carbo-hydrates and proteids. It is to the latter class of food 
we will confine ourselves this evening, and endeavor to attribute 
to an excessive quantity of this class, the morbid phenomena of 
azoturia. 
We know that the albuminoid class of food, after undergoing 
the process of digestion by which it is converted into soluble 
peptone, enters the circulation directly by absorption. We 
know also that albuminose, after being appropriated from the 
blood by the tissues, undergoes the process of oxidation, and leaves 
the body chiefly in the form of a crystaline, nitrogenized, excre- 
mentitious substance, which we call urea. But albuminose is ap¬ 
propriated by the tissues only in quantities commensurate with 
bodily waste. Excessive quantities of nitrogenized food taken 
into the alimentary canal are readily digested, and pass by osmosis 
directly into the circulation; but the tissues being capable of 
assimilating only a certain amount, which is regulated by the 
physical exertion to which an animal is subjected, any excess in 
quantity is stored up in the blood during physical inactivity, until 
not only the solid tissues of the body, but the blood itself is sur¬ 
charged with albumenoid matter. Now, upon a certain degree 
of muscular exertion being performed, rapid oxidation occurs, and 
we have the formation of creatinine, creatine, uric acid, and finally 
urea, to the excessive quantity of which the toxaemia is due. 
The urea accumulating in the blood beyond certain limits acts 
in a manner analogous to certain poisons introduced from with- 
