392 Proceedings of the Royal Institution, 



its performance is frequently completed in less than one minute of 

 time, so that the sufferings of the patient, even if severe, are extremely 

 short in their duration. But all would not suffice to disarm the knife, 

 the histoury, or the gorget of their terror ; and the operation which 

 Hippocrates regarded with so much dread as to compel his pupils to 

 swear never to perform it, has ever continued so formidable, that 

 every department of -science has been applied to, in the hope which 

 till now was vain, to escape its dangers. But the saxifrages of hf^ 

 tany, and the lithontriptics of chemistry, were equally ineffectual, 

 although the necessity of getting some fragments of the stone, in 

 order to ascertain what menstruum would dissolve it, may seem to 

 have led the way to the invention of those instruments by which it 

 may now be totally destroyed : the apparatus best fitted for the de- 

 struction of various calculous concretions may thus be succinctly 

 described. But first let it be premised that the elements of this ope- 

 ration are — 



1. The reduction of the curves of the urethra to a right line, so 

 that straight instruments may be passed through it, and its capacity 

 dilated. ' 



2. The introduction of an apparatus, the different parts of which 

 are fitted to sound, to seize, and also to destroy the stone. ..-j^f 



3. The injection of fluid into the bladder, by which, during the ope- 

 ration, its parietes are kept from coming in contact with the instru- 

 ments, and by which the detritus may be afterwards washed out. ;^j 



These elements of lithotrity may claim, in part, a very early date ; 

 but although long known, it was not till lately that they became of 

 much practical importance ; and to the distinguished foreigners 

 already mentioned, is the credit due of combining them in one effi- 

 cient system, as well as of constructing a series of very ingenious 

 instruments, by which the operation not only can be, but has been, 

 frequently performed with success. d' ol tii^sa biwow 



The schemes of Elderton and Lukin are not dwelt on here, for 

 the instruments of the former were never made, nor were his propo- 

 sals reduced to practice ; and the apparatus of the latter, although 

 ingenious, and considering the date of the manufacture, highly cre- 

 ditable, is certainly not ^tted, to fulfil t^ pw:pQSQ»;<fod;<.i|^l]^ iliiWfis 

 designed, ■ , ■* hIvU H hmv'mir'iil '■' >nmm ir^od hy&d .h'/Mmiit - 



