502 DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 



in some minutes or may occupy some hours. In some in- 

 stances, in order to expedite our proceedings, and enable us 

 to dilate the passage with more effect, it may be requisite 

 to slit up the urethra to some small extent : this became 

 necessary in Mr. Pope's case. The safest instrument for 

 this purpose is the bistouri cache. 



LiTHOTRiTY — the crushing and comminution of the cal- 

 culus — is an operation that has been ^nd still continues to 

 be practised among surgeons, some of whom, with the as- 

 sistance of ingenious instrument-makers, imagine that it 

 will one day or other save the pain of cutting for the stone ; 

 the late Mr. Liston, however, said — and this is authority 

 we must all bow to — '' I am not so sanguine as to suppose 

 that the breaking up of the stone in the bladder will ever 

 entirely supersede lithotomy.'^^ Many lithotritic instru- 

 ments have been contrived and recommended of late years ; 

 the favourite one of the present day appears to be that 

 called the scy^ew lithotrite, also an invention of Mr. Weiss. 

 In human practice this operation, is recommended only for 

 the adult whose urethra, prostate, and bladder are healthy, 

 and in whom the calculus is below the magnitude of a 

 chestnut : considerations which the veterinarian will find it 

 his interest to keep in view. In a case of simple dilatation, 

 should difficulty be experienced in drawing the calculus 

 through the widened passage, it would be, perhaps, advisa^ 

 ble to have recourse to the screw lithotrite ; supposing the 

 stone could not be crushed and broken in pieces, or be any 

 how reduced in bulk by the common forceps; which, as I 

 shall show, has been effected in several instances. 



Lithotomy — rather cystotomy j inasmuch as its meaning 

 is, cutting into the bladder to extract the stone — is an ope- 

 ration of very old date in the annals of veterinary practice ; 

 one of serious and dangerous tendency ; at the same time 

 one Avhich has in several instances of late years been per- 

 formed with complete success. Vegetius speaks of " horses 

 being incommoded with the stone ;" and gives directions ^'to 

 put your fingers through the holes made in the rectum and 



' Elements of Surgery, by Robert Listen, 1840. 



