STONE IN THE BLADDER. 
321 
success. It was soon remarked, however, that he made frequent 
attempts to stale ; and that, with all the effort he could use, but 
very little urine was voided. This led our attention to the urinary 
apparatus. My first thought was to attempt to pass a whale¬ 
bone probe along the urethra; but, to my surprise, I could not 
even effect this. I immediately sought for the cause of impedi¬ 
ment ; and I found it. It was obstruction at the mouth of the 
canal by two pieces of calculus, about the magnitude of walnuts, 
which, without much difficulty, were dislodged and abstracted. 
After this operation the animal shewed signs of relief from pain : 
but, still, from the very circumstance of the presence of urinary 
calculi, I deemed it right to proceed without delay to examination 
of the bladder. The result proved at once perfectly satisfac¬ 
tory; for I immediately discovered that a calculus (as near 
as 1 could imagine from the feel) about the size of a hen’s egg 
was lying within and obstructing the passage through the neck 
of the bladder. I did all I could with my hand to dislodge it— 
to thrust it back into the cavity of the bladder; or even to force 
it on into the urethra: but I could effect neither one nor the other. 
On a second examination, however, shortly after the first, I found, 
much to my surprise and something to my joy, that the stone 
had, of itself, slipped from its original place into the curvature 
of the urethra, a situation, almost of all others, I considered to 
be the most favourable for an operation; and therefore I hesitated 
not a moment to take advantage of this, the symptoms by this 
time having become of a most pressing and perilous character. 
The unfortunate animal, however, did not survive the necessary 
precautionary measures to such an operation: previous pain and 
present suffering brought on exhaustion and death even before 
we, ourselves, were prepared for it. 
Examination after Death. 
The stone was found in the situation afore-described. The 
membrane lining both the urethra and bladder had undergone 
great alterations : it had become generally thickened very much ; 
and was in places deeply ulcerated. Moreover, the ulcers had not 
only extensively corroded, but had eaten completely through the 
substance of the bladder, making a hole as large as a common quill, 
through which urine, to the amount of eight or nine gallons, had 
transfused itself into the cavity of the belly. The fluid had in¬ 
duced a violent inflammation over the peritoneal lining of the 
cavity and coverings of the different viscera, more particularly of 
that of the intestines. 
Mr. Cruikshanks did me the favour to analyse the stone, and 
pronounced it to be composed principally of calcareous earth. 
