organ, the mistake is
still more easily made; hence it is important in all cases to examine
for the impacted bowel, forming a bend or loop at the entrance of the
pelvis and usually toward the left side. The impacted intestine feels
soft and doughy and is easily indented with the knuckles, forming a
marked contrast with the tense, elastic, resilient, overdistended
bladder.

It remains to be noted that similar symptoms may be determined by a
stone or sebaceous mass, or stricture obstructing the urethra, or in the
newborn by thickened mucus in that duct and by the pressure of hardened,
impacted feces in the rectum. In obstruction, the hard, impacted body
can usually be felt by tracing the urethra along the lower and posterior
surface of the penis and forward to the median line of the floor of the
pelvis to the neck of the bladder. That part of the urethra between the
seat of obstruction and the bladder is usually distended with urine and
feels enlarged, elastic, and fluctuating.

_Treatment._--Treatment may be begun by taking the animal out of
harness. This failing, spread clean litter beneath the belly or turn the
patient out on the dung heap. Some seek to establish sympathetic action
by pouring water from one vessel into another with dribbling noise.
Others soothe and distract the attention by slow whistling. Friction of
the abdomen with wisps of straw may succeed, or it may be rubbed with
ammonia and oil. These failing, an injection of 2 ounces of laudanum or
of an infusion of 1 ounce of tobacco in water may be tried. In the mare
the neck of the bladder is easily dilated by inserting two oiled fingers
and slightly parting them. In the horse the oiled hand introduced into
the rectum may press from before backward on the anterior or blind end
of the bladder. Finally, a well-oiled gum-elastic catheter may be
entered into the urethra through the papilla at the end of the penis and
pushed on carefully until it has entered the bladder. To effect this the
penis must first be withdrawn from its sheath, and when the advancing
end of the catheter has reached the bend of the urethra beneath the anus
it must be guided forward by pressure with the hand, which guidance must
be continued onward into the bladder, the oiled hand being introduced
into the rectum for this purpose. The horse catheter, 3-1/2 feet long
and one-third inch in diameter, may be bought of a surgical-instrument
maker.

PARALYSIS OF THE BLADDER.

Paralysis o