CYSTIC OR VESICAL CALCULI. 501 



perhaps^ recommend a proceeding so uncertain in its results, 

 so liable to do harm, and so tedious and tiresome in its 

 effects, wlien we have remedies at hand which are now 

 brought, in human surgery at least, to such a degree of per- 

 fection that they are practised not only with certainty of 

 cure, but with comparative safety. At the present day three 

 operations are in vogue for stone ; two have its extraction 

 as their object ; the other, the comminution of it. 



Dilatation — without cutting — of the natural passages 

 through which the urine is voided, may be said to be the 

 simplest of these operations. It is practicable both in the 

 male and female ; but from its nature and effects is more 

 especially suitable to the latter, in consequence of her urethra 

 being short and nearly straight, and readily operated on. 

 D^Arboval tells us that Henier, of Prague, has performed it 

 upon a mare with success. And since, in our own country, 

 Mr. Pope, of Aberdeenshire, has put its practicability and 

 success to the test. In the case of one or more small cal- 

 culi, this simple mode of procedure certainly ought to be 

 preferred ; and in the case of large ones, they may admit, 

 first, of being broken to pieces. The best instrument for 

 comminution appears to be the forceps constructed by Llr. 

 Weiss of the Strand ; only they would require to be made 

 larger and longer than those used in human surgery. A 

 dilator so constructed as to be used as forceps when the requi- 

 site dilatation has been effected, would, I think, be found a 

 very useful instrument. Messrs. Field, I believe, have 

 never in their operations, even on the male, had occasion 

 to slit the urethra open : but have always succeeded by cut- 

 ting down m perineo upon the grooved and curved end of 

 a large straight metallic staff passed through the penis, and 

 afterwards introducing a pair of large long-shanked forceps. 

 This simplifies the operation very much, at the same time 

 that it diminishes the risk of dangerous consequences. 

 Some preparation of the patient and of the parts, by way of 

 relaxation, would seem to be required to facilitate the dila- 

 tation ; although, from the accounts given of it by surgeons, 

 it appears to be an operation which may be either effected 



