CASES OF STONE IN BLADDER. 109 



bef;n taken, communicates to the Medical Society of Crane Court, London, a 

 similar circumstance which had come under his observation — both being cases 

 of millers' horses. He then describes "the case of a very valuable horse be 

 longing to Mr. Andrews, another miller, which lay ill of the colic," as the 

 owner supposed. *' I told him (says Dr. Withers) that if he would examine 

 the intestines after death, he would most probably find a large stone, which 

 was the cause of the horse's illness." This, the miller, of course, neglected 

 to do; but his dogs made the discovery for him: it was a large round stone, 

 broken, from which circumstance 1 infer that it had been at first a soft or earthy 

 concretion, and proceeded from the cojcum. Four such instances all together 

 were remembered at the same mill, besides many others elsewhere ; but, with 

 'characteristic negligence, the millers in no case thought proper to furnish the 

 i.octor with the when and the where found, nor does the doctor say why. 



The symptoms of calculous deposite throughout apparently resemble colic 

 to the view of common observers, as in the case of Mr. Andrews' horse, just 

 quoted; the animal looking at his flanks, straddling when a kidney is affected, 

 as if he would stale, which he does with great difficulty, and sometimes a little 

 bloody. This last appearance also occurs when the bladder has been affected 

 for any length of time, so that the anguish of acute pain had communicated to 

 the kidneys by means of the ureters, in which manner alone blood could pos- 

 sibly have been produced in the celebrated case cited by two contemporary 

 waters from M, La Fosse, the elder. When stone resides in a kidney, it may 

 be ascertained by pressure of the hand thereon : 1 will not exactly say you can 

 feel the stone, for it lodgeth underneath, but the greater tension and enlarge- 

 ment of one kidney beyond the other, leaves that notion on the mind; besides 

 which, the animal will shrink, or rather start, a little quicker that in case of 

 "inflammation of the kidneys" — the symptoms whereof, asset down in a pre- 

 ceding page (103), the reader should consult in order to shape his practice ac- 

 cordingly. 



Calculous, or earthy deposits of substances in the coecum may be ascertain- 

 ed and distinguished from simple colic or gripes, by passing the hand along 

 the lower part of the belly, as described in the first book, at page 46. While 

 such an obstruction remains deposited near the blind part of that gut, no im- 

 mediate danger or inconvenience is to be apprehended; but when the lump, 

 by any means whatever, moves to the orifice, and obstructs its only passage, 

 the most distressing consequences ensue. One of the causes hereof is the ex- 

 hibition of hot, S'trong, or drastic medicines, which are usually given in cases 

 of genuine spasmodic colic ; and as the symptoms that attend both are alike 

 almost throughout, with the exception just made, no mistake is more general, 

 Drobably, than people treating this disorder as they would colic, which course 

 endangers Ufe. 



The ureters, it will be seen, are but of small capacity, and in its descent 

 troni the kidney, whence it has been detached, the stone sometimes meets with 

 an insurmountable obstacle ; the irritation it thus occasions communicates to 

 the adjacent parts ; entire suppression of the urinary secretion is the immediate 

 consequence, and mortification of the intestines and death ensues, without the 

 possibility of relief. Indeed the remedies that seem most proper do but ac- 

 celerate the catastrophe.* 



Much i)crs[)irati()n attends the first hours of the suppression, and it affords 

 evident relief; but painful efforts to void urme, which comes off in very small 

 quantity, and ultimately ceases altogether; and then cold ears, cold legs, 

 tremor and an alarming irregularity of pulse, preceue but a short time the 



* I say seem, for none can say precisel> what is tiiking place. He whose judgment tcina» 

 htra neaf«'3C the real cause of pain being most likely to apply the proper recieay. 

 11» 



