CYSTIC OR VESICAL CALCUIJ. 499 



flow, it will probably be owing to the lodgement of the cal- 

 culus within the neck, in which situation, by directing our 

 hand more backward and downward, we may be able to feel 

 the solid body, and possibly succeed in dislodging it, and 

 pushing it backward into the fundus, and so occasioning a 

 flux of urine. Should the stone have got so firmly im- 

 pacted that we cannot move it, Ave must have recourse to a 

 sound. In case we detect no calculus in our examination, 

 and yet not feel satisfied in our mind that none exists, we 

 must cast the horse, and examine the bladder afresh while 

 he is turned upon his back. Should no stone be felt in 

 this position neither, I should conclude there was none. I 

 should not deem it worth while to cut into the urethra to 

 sound the horse,^ although I might pass a sound in the case 

 of a mare ; added to which, in the latter case, we have in 

 our power the manual examination j}er vaginam, during 

 which we may pass our finger into the meatus urinarius, 

 and possibly actually feel the stone itself.^ 



The Consequences of Calculus remaining in the blad- 

 der are, inflammation producing cystorrhoea, thickening, 

 induration, schirrus, -ulceration of the lining membrane, ex- 

 tending through the outer tunics, and ending iu rupture of 

 the bladder and extravasation of the urine into the pelvic 

 and abdominal cavities ; the burst commonly happening at 

 the fundus. D^Arboval speaks of meeting wdth calculi en- 

 cysted within the bladder. 



Treatment. — The existence of calculus being no longer 

 an afiPair of doubt, the next question which arises is — how 

 is it to be got rid of? We may take for granted that the 

 basis of its composition is carbonate of lime ; and upon this 

 we know even weak acids make manifest impression. But 

 acids, if given by the mouth, are found to undergo such 

 change before they arrive in the bladder, that they no 

 longer possess the power of acting upon the stone ; and 



' With Mr. Taylor's jointed sound, this operation may, possil)ly, be satis- 

 factorily effected without cutting. 



^ See Professor Renault's operation for stone in a uiare, in ' The Veterinarian' 

 for 1835. 



