80 DISEASES OF THE BLADDER 



CHAPTER VII. 



HYPERJESTHESIA OP THE BLADDER. 



HYPERAESTHESIA of the bladder is most commonly seen in indi 

 tiduals addicted to sexual excess, especially to onanism a very mod- 

 erate degree of fulness of the bladder causing in them a most intense 

 desire to urinate " castus raro mingit" If they have not opportunity 

 to indulge their inclination to pass water, they suffer pain over the 

 bladder and along the penis. The power of retaining the urine is not 

 generally impaired in such cases, the hyperaesthesia being pure and 

 uncombined with motor disturbance. Sometimes, however, this irri- 

 tability of the bladder is accompanied by a diminution of power in the 

 detrusors ; and it is not without reason that a strong stream of urine 

 passes for a sign of chastity among the laity, and a languid dribbling 

 one for a token of the reverse. Extreme hyperaesthesia of the bladder 

 sometimes follows gonorrhoea. Patients are sometimes met with who 

 are quite unfitted for their previous occupation, being unable to hold 

 their water for over a quarter of an hour at a time, and are thereby 

 reduced almost to desperation. This form of hyperaesthesia, perhaps, 

 is always accompanied by a slight catarrh. The intolerance of the 

 bladder against its contents is the most prominent symptom of this 

 form of catarrh ; and I have never noticed any excessive production of 

 mucus. 



For the milder form of hyperaesthesia of the bladder, such as affects 

 dissipated persons and onanists, I recommend cold river and sea baths, 

 cold sitz-baths, and cold douches. The more severe forms, which re- 

 main after cure of a gonorrhoea rthe cold- water-cure, injections into 

 the bladder, and other active procedures, proving ineffective I have 

 in some instances seen disappear rapidly and without trace under 

 large doses of balsam copaiba. 



There are no well-authenticated observations of neuralgia of the 

 bladder, that is, of painful excitement of the sensory nerves, which 

 cannot be traced to irritation of their peripheral extremities. 



CHAPTER VIIJ. 



ANAESTHESIA OF THE BLADDER. 



SOME persons can suffer the accumulation of a very large amount 

 of urine in their bladder without feeling an urgent inclination to evacu- 

 ate it. This condition, however, is hardly to be regarded as a morbid 

 one. On the other hand, it seems to me admissible to ascribe the 



