of the urethra which had been destroyed. 309 
lay the foundation of an improved mode of treating some of 
the more lamentable cases of strictures with fistulous open- 
ings and diseased integuments in perineo. It is well known, 
that such cases occasionally baffle the skill of the ablest prac- 
titioners, and often terminate in premature death after years 
of continual suffering. When we consider that that part of 
the urethra situated opposite the perineum, is by much the 
most frequent seat of disease, and that it is often confined to 
this situation, it is probable that in such cases, if we could 
remove the diseased portion of the urethra, together with 
the thickened fistulous integument, much good might be 
effected ; and perhaps even a permanent cure might be ac- 
complished, by subsequently pursuing a somewhat analogous 
operation to the one performed on Whitaker. Such a prac- 
tice would, I conceive, be justifiable on two grounds. In the 
first place, the patient's state is nearly hopeless from all com- 
mon plans of treatment, and should the operation not even- 
tually succeed, he will not be rendered worse ; for instead of 
making water through numerous fistulous apertures, and 
being subject to frequent depots of urine and the formation 
of fresh abscesses, he would at once empty his bladder from 
the extremity of the membranous part of the urethra ; and 
farther it may be urged, that no parts of vital importance 
would be endangered by the operation. It is true, that such 
a plan would be both painful and tedious, but I should still 
consider it worth the experiment, after in vain trying all the 
usual modes of relief. The case just related, and the success 
which attended Mr. Cooper, encourage us to hope that, in 
many cases which have hitherto been abandoned as incurable, 
much good may yet be effected by judicious treatment, and 
