[ S°° ] 
XXI. On the re-establishment of a canal in the place of a portion 
of the Urethra which had been destroyed . By Henry Earle, 
Esq. Surgeon to the Foundling , and Assistant Surgeon to St. 
Bartholomew's Hospital. Communicated by Sir Humphry 
Davy, Bart. P. R. S. 
Read April 12, 1821. 
If any apology be requisite for bringing forward the fol- 
lowing insulated fact, I hope it will be found in its tendency 
to throw some light on an interesting physiological subject, 
which has lately occupied the attention of this learned Society, 
as well as in its novelty and general importance. 
Of all the complaints to which the human body is liable, 
there is, perhaps, no class more productive of corporal and 
mental suffering, than the various affections of the male 
urethra. For it is most obvious, that any deviation from 
healthy structure in that part, which, from its peculiar func- 
tion, is called into action after very short intervals of repose, 
must, from that circumstance alone, be productive of almost 
constant suffering ; while the mind of the patient is also de- 
pressed from the effect of a continual anticipation of pain, 
and the apprehension of impaired virility. 
The following is a statement of the result of a new ope- 
ration in a very aggravated case, by which an individual has 
been raised from such a state of despondency to one of com- 
parative happiness. 
