A practical treatise on the diseases, injuries and malformations of the urinary bladder, the prostate gland, and the urethra / by Samuel D. Gross.

Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases, injuries and malformations of the urinary bladder, the prostate gland, and the urethra / by Samuel D. Gross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and wicked persons, who take advantage of tlie helpless state of their intended victim. Bits of catheters, bougies, quills, pipe- stems, wood, straw, and other substances have been accidentally lodged in the urethra by individuals endeavoring to draw otf their urine, relieve a stricture, or provoke onanism. Females, apparently from mere wantonness, or a desire to excite sympathy and commiseration, often introduce pebbles, cherry-stones, chicken-bones, bits of brick, pins, needles, and other articles, into the urethra. Foreign bodies, introduced from without, ]3roduce various effects, according to the manner in which they are inserted, their nature, the distance which they have travelled, and the period of their sojourn. There is one ieature which they all possses in common, namely, a remarkable iiropensity to migrate to the bladder, no matter what may be their form, size, or composition. The bladder, favored by the peristaltic action of the urethra, manifests, so to speak, in all cases of this kind, a disposition to swallow the foreign body, or to suck it in. In some cases the extraneous substance becomes impacted, and remains in the canal for an indefinite period, perhaps for many years, attended, it may be, with little inconvenience or functional disturbance. Occa- sionalljq it forms the nucleus of a urinary concretion, or its surface becomes incrusted with earthy matter. When bulky, it gives rise to retention of urine, with inflammation of the urethra, severe pain, morbid erections, frequent micturition, rio-ors, and hi2:h constitutional disorder* ITemorrha2:e is liable to attend when the foreign substance has an unusually rough surface, or when it has been rudely inserted. Finally, it occasionally happens, as was previously stated, that the escape of a concretion is prevented by an organic stricture. When the case is urgent, or admits of no delay, in consequence of retention of the urine, relief must be afforded either by divid- ing the stricture from within, and then extracting the calculus in the usual manner, or, when this is impracticable, by making an incision into the canal, embracing both the stricture and the foreign body. Much tact and ingenuity are often required in extracting a foreign body introduced from without. This is especially the case when it has broken off low down in the passage, or when it has pierced its walls. Much difliculty may also result from