is liable to be
powerless, and the neck of the bladder may also be paralyzed, so that the
urine dribbles away continuously.

_Causes._--Among the causes of spasm of the neck of the bladder may be
named the lodgment of small stones or gravel, the feeding on irritant
diuretics (see "Bloody urine," p. 119, or "Nephritis," p. 123), the
enforced retention of urine while at work or during a painful or difficult
parturition. The irritation attendant on inflammation of the mucous
membrane of the bladder may be a further cause of spasms of the neck, as
may also be inflammation of the channel (urethra) back of the neck.
Extensive applications of Spanish flies to the skin, the abuse of
diuretics, and the occurrence of indigestion and spasms of the bowels are
further causes. So long as spasmodic colic is unrelieved, retention of
water from spasm of the neck of the bladder usually persists.

_Treatment._--Treatment depends largely on the cause. In indigestion the
irritant contents of the bowels must be got rid of by laxatives and
injections of warm water; Spanish-fly blisters must be washed from the
surface; a prolonged and too active exertion must be intermitted. The spasm
may be relaxed by injecting one-half ounce of solid extract of belladonna
in water into the rectum or by a solution of tobacco. Chloroform or ether
may be given by inhalation, or chloral hydrate (1 ounce) may be given in
water by the mouth. Fomentations of warm water may be made over the loins
and between the thighs, and the oiled hand inserted into the rectum may
press moderately on the anterior part of the bladder, which can be felt as
an elastic fluctuating bag of an oval shape just beneath.

All other measures failing, the liquid must be drawn off through a tube
(catheter). This is, however, exceedingly difficult, alike in male and
female, and we can not expect an amateur to succeed in accomplishing it. In
the cow the opening into the bladder is found in the median line of the
floor of the generative entrance, about 4 inches in front of the external
opening, but it is flanked on either side by a blind pouch, into which the
catheter will pass, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, in the hands of
any but the most skilled operator. In the bull or steer the penis, when
retracted into its sheath, is bent upon itself like the letter S, just
above the scrotum and testicles (see Pl. IX, fig. 2), and unless this bend
is effaced by extending the organ forward out o