TO CALCULOUS DISEASES. 
423 
hospitals in that kingdom, to which Sir Charles Flint, the resident Under- 
secretary of State for Ireland in this country, has obligingly given me 
every facility. From the result of those inquiries it appears, that calculous 
diseases in Ireland are very rare, particularly in its country population. In 
various extensive districts from which I have been favoured with returns, 
stone is entirely unknown ; and in others, it occurs with extreme unfrequency. 
Thus in the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh, 
Tyrone, Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, and Longford ; in King’s County ; and in 
the counties of Louth, Wicklow, Clare, Kerry, Galway, Roscommon, Tippe- 
rary, and Mayo, containing, together, a population of above three millions and 
half of persons, not a single operation of lithotomy has occurred in any of 
their respective hospitals since their establishment ; nor has one example, 
among the poor of those extensive districts, come within the cognizance of the 
eminent and well-informed practitioners, who have done me the favour of 
replying to the queries which I transmitted to them on the subject. 
In the counties of Down, Monaghan, Leitrim, Sligo, Limerick, and Water- 
ford, and in Queen’s County, the population of which amounts together to 
about 1,200,000 persons, 9 cases of stone operation only have occurred, 
during the whole time to which the records of the hospitals, or the information 
or inquiries of their medical officers extend, and which embrace a period 
hardly short of 40 years. This is at the rate of not more than 0.25 per annum, 
or one case in 4 years. 
In the city and county of Cork, containing, together, above 800,000 inhabi- 
tants, about 13 operations of lithotomy have been performed in the last 18 
years, or about 0.66 per annum, of which 10 occurred to Dr. Woodroffe of 
the South Hospital. 
In the hospitals of Dublin, including the Meath or county of Dublin 
Hospital, it appears from information with which I have been favoured by 
Mr. Roney, late President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Dublin, and 
Mr. Crampton, the Surgeon-general of Ireland, that about 6 cases occur in 
the course of the year ; and this estimate is confirmed by Mr. Carmichael’s 
opinion, as stated by Mr. Hutchison. 
Making a suitable allowance, therefore, for those counties from which I have 
3 i 
MDCCCXXX. 
