reatment
should be as prescribed for congestion of the lungs, and, in addition,
antispasmodics, such as 1 ounce of sulphuric ether in warm water or 3
drams of asafetida.

RUPTURE OF THE DIAPHRAGM.

Post-mortem examinations after colic or severe accident sometimes reveal
rupture of the diaphragm. This may take place after death, from the
generation of gases in the decomposing carcass, which distend the
intestines so that the diaphragm is ruptured by the great pressure
against it. The symptoms are intensely difficult respiration and great
depression. There is no treatment.

DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS.

BY JAMES LAW, F. R. C. V. S.,

_Formerly Professor of Veterinary Science, etc., in Cornell University._

USES OF THE URINARY ORGANS.

The urinary organs constitute the main channel through which are
excreted the nitrogenous or albuminoid principles, whether derived
directly from the feed or from the muscular and other nitrogenized
tissues of the body. They constitute, besides, the channel through which
are thrown out most of the poisons, whether taken in by the mouth or
skin or developed in connection with faulty or natural digestion,
blood-forming, nutrition, or tissue destruction; or, finally, poisons
that are developed within the body, as the result of normal cell life or
of the life of bacterial or other germs that have entered the body from
without. Bacteria themselves largely escape from the body through the
kidneys. To a large extent, therefore, these organs are the sanitary
scavengers and purifiers of the system, and when their functions are
impaired or arrested the retained poisons quickly show their presence in
resulting disorders of the skin and connective tissue beneath it, of the
nervous system, or other organs. Nor is this influence one-sided.
Scarcely an important organ of the body can suffer derangement without
entailing a corresponding disorder of the urinary system. Nothing can be
more striking than the mutual balance maintained between the liquid
secretions of the skin and kidneys during hot and cold weather. In
summer, when so much liquid exhales through the skin as sweat,
comparatively little urine is passed, whereas in winter, when the skin
is inactive, the urine is correspondingly increased. This vicarious
action of skin and kidneys is usually kept within the limits of health,
but at times the draining off of the water by the skin leaves too little
to keep the solids of the urin