amongst fattening Sheep and Lambs. 499 



of cold spring water, taken night and morning, will at once 

 cause the cessation of this morbid symptom. This fact is 

 important, and though too much reliance must not be placed on 

 analogy with human medicine, I am satisfied, from practical 

 observations, that water is a most valuable adjunct to other 

 treatment in the removal of the disease in question, and where 

 sheep refuse to drink it voluntarily their medicine should always 

 be largely diluted with it. 



It is not always, however, that the removal of the sediment 

 from the urethra can be so easily effected. On the contrary, it 

 will frequently be found of such a character (gritty, and of the 

 size of small seeds) that it cannot possibly be passed through the 

 external opening. In such cases I have never hesitated to make 

 an incision on the under surface of the urethra, as near the 

 extremity as possible, generally, indeed, in the vermiform ap- 

 pendage itself, large enough to allow this gravel to be pressed 

 out. Sometimes, indeed, the simplest and most desirable mode 

 of proceeding is to remove this structure altogether. In wethers 

 there cannot be the slightest objection to so simple an operation 

 at any time ; but in rams the case is somewhat different. It is 

 generally believed that this peculiar appendage is intended by 

 nature to perform some important function in the act of copula- 

 tion, and that where it has been removed the ram is no longer 

 capable of procreation. I am not fully prepared, at the present 

 moment, either to endorse or contradict this opinion ; but I am 

 assured by a distinguished sheep-breeder in this district, that the 

 commonly received opinion on this subject is an erroneous one, 

 and that he has had many lambs got by rams which had undergone 

 the mutilation in question. At all events, the matter appears to be 

 so far one of grave doubt that it is much to be desired that satis- 

 factory experiments should be instituted with a view to settling the 

 question. Be this as it may, however, I am satisfied that a longi- 

 tudinal incision, such as I have just described, may be made into 

 the organ without in any way impairing its supposed functions, 

 and there need not, therefore, be any reason to hesitate in such a 

 course of proceeding when the circumstances of the case appear to 

 render it necessary. By such means, with frequent fomentations 

 and careful manipulation, the obstruction may often be removed ; 

 and a proper observance of the medicinal treatment already 

 pointed out will complete the cure. It is only just to add, also, 

 that cases will occasionally be met with in which these accumu- 

 lations are so abundant, occupying not only the urethra, but also 

 the bladder, ureters, and even the kidney itself, that no treat- 

 ment can be of any service. Such cases may always be distin- 

 guished by observing that little or no relief follows the removal 

 of the deposit from the penal portion of the urethra, and from 



