This is a common seat of tubercle in generalized tuberculosis in cattle, and may give rise to the same urinary troubles as chronic prostatitis or hypertrophy of the organ. In a remarkable case recorded by Frauenholz the tuberculous prostate of an ox weighed 10½ lbs. and had contracted adhesions to surrounding pelvic organs. Section of the mass showed numerous centres of extensive caseous degeneration. In such cases the generalized tuberculosis is the important fact and the prostatic disease is only an unusually intractable complication. If less generalized, the implication of the testicle or epididymus is strongly suggestive, and examination of the urine may detect the tubercle bacillus, or the tuberculin test may develop the characteristic febrile reaction.
CANCER OF THE PROSTATE.
Lafosse records as colloid cancer a case of diseased prostate in an ox, in which the mass approximated to the size of the human head, and was made up of numerous cavities the largest not over 1½ inch in diameter, and all intercommunicating, and containing a gluey, or gelatinoid liquid with numerous small round cells and a few multinucleated giant cells. No evidence is given of the implication of even the adjoining lymph glands, so that the case was probably only an enlarged cystic prostate.
Fournier records a case in a three year old horse, which on necropsy showed a ruptured bladder, general peritonitis, and an enlarged prostate, involving Cowper’s glands. Nocard identified its cancerous nature by microscopic examination. Yet there is not a word of the implication of adjacent lymph glands.
Goubaux says prostatic cancer is common in dogs.
PROSTATIC CYSTS.
These are not at all uncommon as a complication of hypertrophy of the prostate, the ducts having become obstructed and the follicles indefinitely distended. The case described by Lafosse as cancer of the prostate of a bull is strongly suggestive of such retention cysts.
CALCULUS OF THE PROSTATE.
Two forms of calculi have been found in the prostate in domestic animals: 1st, small, round, angular or branched bodies made up in concentric layers and formed of organic nitrogenous bodies: and 2nd, genuine calculi of calcium phosphate or ammonia magnesian phosphate. These may cause pressure on the parenchymatous tissue and atrophy, but in the lower animals they are seldom the direct cause of prominent morbid symptoms. They must, however, be recognized as one of the causes of chronic irritation that contribute to prostatic inflammation and hypertrophy.