Subsequently, as the symptoms alter, pus or matter may subside in the water. It is indicative of an unfavorable termination should a fetid odor attend the secretion, and should it be deeply tinted by the blood. Death is generally close at hand when the pulse grows quicker but more feeble, when pressure elicits no response, when the body is covered with perspiration, and when a urinous smell is perceptible on approaching the animal.
THE TEST FOR NEPHRITIS OR INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS.
The treatment of nephritis consists in applying fresh sheepskins to the loins. Should the case be urgent, a quantity of lukewarm made mustard may be first rubbed in and the sheepskin placed over it; or mustard poultices in any case may be employed and covered over to prevent them becoming dry, till sheepskins can be procured. Injections of warm linseed tea should be thrown up every hour, as these are the nearest approach that can be made to actual fomentation. Two scruples of croton farina, mixed with half a drachm of belladonna, may be given immediately in the form of a ball, the bulk of which should be made up with crushed linseeds and treacle. One scruple of calomel, with one drachm of opium, may be sprinkled on the tongue every hour while the acute stage continues. A pail of good linseed tea should be kept before the horse; but as for more substantial provender, none is requisite during the agony of the disease.
Should the slightest doubt be entertained concerning the nature of the affection, immediately insert the arm up the rectum. This intestine is anatomically spoken of as "a floating gut." It is suspended from the spine by mesentery or a loose fold of thin membrane, and, therefore, is easily raised or depressed. It is situated under the kidneys, and nothing consequently interposes between the diseased organ and the inserted hand but the pliable coats of the bowel and the fatty substances which immediately surround the glands. The hand is not conscious of the soft wall of the intestine which covers it. The motion is so free, and the fingers are so readily moved, that previous knowledge alone assures the operator his arm is within a circumscribed canal, and not located in a free space.
a a a. The spine. b b b. The mesentery. c c c. The rectum.
A. The extent to which the rectum may by very gradual force be depressed without injury to the animal.