Class I. 2. 3. 25. OF IRRITATION, i€* 



Mr. Home has published a very ingenious and ufefu! work, en- 

 titled, a Biflertation on Strictures of the Urethra, in which he has 

 recorded many cafes fuccefsfully treated by lunar cauftic, inferr- 

 ed in the end of a bougie, and applied to the contracted part of 

 the urethra, fo as to deftroy the ftricture. 



From the form of the cavity of the urethra, taken by injecting 

 wax into it, there appears naturally to exift a kind of valve im- 

 mediately behind the bulb of the urethra, which when the penis 

 is erect, fhuts up the orifice, and prevents the regurgitation of 

 the femen into the bladder during the action of the accelerator 

 mufcles in the act of its expulfion ; and this natural conftriction 

 or valve appears generally to be the firft feat of ft.rict.ure. 



Above the bulb, about two or three inches from the orifice 

 of the glans, the cavity of the urethra appears alfo lerTened j and 

 in fome cafes the orifice of the very extremity appears lefs than 

 other parts of the canal j thefe parts are therefore more contract- 

 ed during the emifTio feminis, and add to its velocity at its exit ; 

 and are thence more liable to fcirrhofity or ftricture. And by 

 fome obfervations, Mr. Home has {hewn, that a fympathy exifts 

 between the ftrictures of thefe parts ; and that the more for- 

 ward ftrictures are frequently produced in confequence of that 

 behind the bulb j and finds it necefiary to deftroy them all, by 

 frequent application of the cauftic. 



By the ufe of which, (which was firft propofed by Wifeman, 

 firft applied by John Hunter, and fo greatly improved by Mr- 

 Home) the lives of great numbers are rendered happy, who oth- 

 erwife gradually perifh by a moft painful and hopeleis malady. 



25. Scirrhus cefophagi. A fcirrhus of the throat contracts the 

 paiTage fo as to render the fwallowing of folids impracticable, and 

 of liquids difficult. It afreets patients of all ages, but is probably 

 molt frequently produced by fwallowing hard angular fubftan- 

 ces, when people have loft their teeth ; by which this membrane 

 is over-diftended, or torn, or otherwife injured. 



M. M. Put milk into a bladder tied to a canula or catheter ; 

 introduce it paft the ftricture, and prefs it into the ftomach. 

 Diftend the ftricture gradually by a fponge-tent fattened to the 

 end of whalebone, or by a plug of wax, or a fpermaceti candle, 

 about two inches long ; which might be introduced, and left 

 there with a firing only fixed to it to hang out of the mouth, to 

 keep it in its place, and to retract it by cccafionally ; for which 

 purpofe the firing muftbe put through a catheter or hollow pro- 

 bang, when it is to be retracted. Or laftiy, introduce a gut 

 fixed to a pipe ; and then diftend it by blowing wind into it. 

 The fwallowing a bullet with a firing put through it, to retract 

 it oii the exhibition of on emetic, has alio been propofed. Ex- 

 ternally, 



