Cure of a Suppreffion of Urine . 581 
to any other that I had heard of, for fimplicity, eafe, and 
fafety. The finger could guide the point of the inftru- 
ment to the very fpot of the bladder to be pierced. The * 
coats of the intefinum rectum and bladder, and the inter- 
vening cellular membrane, were all that were to be per- 
forated, and they were now prelied fo clofely together, 
that there could be no more art required than in piercing 
any limple bag of water. When the furgeons returned, 
I told them what had occurred to me concerning the 
defcent of the diftended bladder (for I had not yet exa- 
mined it) and its pre fling the redtum downwards ; I re- 
prefented to them the hazard and difficulty attending the 
operation hitherto in ufe, and propofed this method of 
perforating the bladder with a trocar introduced by the 
anus . They readily acknowledged the advantage of fuch. 
a practice, and agreed to give it the preference. We 
examined with a finger in ano , and felt a large round 
tumor, a very little way within the orifice, preffing the 
anterior fide of the rectum downwards, and pu filing the 
anus and perineeum conliderably outwards. The gut itfelf. 
was loofe and empty; and through its relaxed fides the 
tumor, which was evidently the bladder, was diftindtly 
felt ffretching every way, completely filling the pelvis , 
and feeling like the membranes which contain the wa- 
ters of a, woman in labour, thruft into the dilated vagina, 
I defcribed the manner in which I thought the punc- 
ture fhould be made; and, as 1 imagined that I could 
better execute what 1 had myfelf conceived than another 
perfon, I offered to do it; which being. readily alfented to, 
4 G . 2. the 
