Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Outlines of human pathology / by Herbert Mayo. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
587/640 page 551
![hi every case of considerable contraction. The pain is felt less at the part than at the extremity of the urethra. It appears situated in the lower part of the urethra, half an inch behind the orifice. The danger as well as chief distress arising from stricture^ are in the state of the bladder and kidneys, which are liable, from the force necessary to the expulsion of the urine, ta ehronic inflammation, ulceration, and abscess—the bladder even to slough. \_x. 110.] Some of the local consequences of stricture may be viewed as efforts of nature to save the more internal organs from one or other of these lesions. d. Stricture of the urethra sometimes disappears by nice ration: at any rate, it is difficult on any other supposition ta account for the phenomena of the following case. A gentleman, who had laboured under stricture of the urethra for a great number of years, now voided his urine with the greatest difficulty : the stricture was rigid and un- yielding ; but a catgut bougie was introduced, which en- abled him to make water in a small stream. Under these eircumstances he was seized with pain in the act of making water, which lasted for some minutes aftewards. The pain became more severe: it was referred to the situation of the stricture in the posterior part of the urethra, and the patient described it as intolerable. He said, he could compare it to nothing but the pain which he supposed would be produced if melted lead were poured into the urethra. Every half hour he had a desire to make water; and his screams and groans could be heard not only over the whole house, but even in the street. In the course of a few days these symp- toms began gradually to abate, and the urine flowed in a much larger stream. When the attack had completely sub- sided, the condition of the patient was much improved, for he made water more freely than he had done for many years.—Brodie. e. Sometimes abscess forms deep in the perineum, and close upon the membranous portion of the urethra, [pc. 140.] Such an abscess is attended with fever, brown tongue, and great prostration, and should be opened as soon as suspected. When opened, the urine either at first, or in a day or two.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21066735_0587.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
