LITHOTOMY OX THE HORSE. 
173 
mixed with blood, expressing* great pain, with continued attempts 
to expel more. The symptoms were increased after a fall into a 
ditch, by wdiich he was supposed to have injured the kidneys, as 
it was followed by more frequent and painful evacuations, and, 
at the conclusion, by pure blood. 
By the treatment pursued these violent symptoms were alle¬ 
viated, but always returned after exertion. 
After his admission the symptoms continued, but were relieved 
by aperients and light diet. 
The pulse was kept up by irritation to 38 per minute, the 
healthy average being 32 # . 
Suspecting calculus might be the cause, I examined the bladder, 
by introducing my hand and arm up the rectum, and distinctly 
felt a firm roundish substance at the neck of the bladder, which 
was empty, and firmly contracted upon it. The symptoms were 
rather increased ; and on a subsequent day I renewed the exami¬ 
nation, when the bladder was nearly full, and I could move the 
stone very readily. 
On the 26th the animal appeared to be in a favourable state for 
the operation of lithotomy, which was performed by securing him 
upon his back, with the hind legs drawn forwards to the shoulders. 
The penis being drawn out, a three-foot whalebdne staff was in¬ 
troduced as far as the perineum, and the urethra opened by an 
incision about three inches in length ; a grooved sound was then 
passed straight into the bladder, and the stone was most dis¬ 
tinctly felt, and heard on being struck. It was attempted to be 
extracted without cutting open the pelvic portion of the urethra 
and neck of the bladder; being readily grasped with the forceps, 
assisted by pressure made upon the calculus by the left hand in¬ 
troduced into the rectum ; but being too large, these parts were 
laid open by a lateral incision, made with a strong curved and 
probe-pointed bistoury. It was then, by the same means, but 
with considerable force, brought gradually forward to the perineum 
where it was forcibly contracted upon, and a further extension of 
the external incision was necessarily made to effect its removal. 
The haemorrhage was not very great or alarming; but it was 
thought best to secure a perineal vessel with a ligature. 
The calculus is of the mulberry kind, very rough, of a depressed 
oval form, weighing nearly three ounces: it has no distinct nu¬ 
cleus. ^ Dr. Prout having obligingly undertaken to analyse it, 
found it composed principally of carbonate of lime, some phos¬ 
phate of lime, and a little phosphate of magnesia. 
The horse, immediately after the operation, became tranquil and 
* Surely this calculation i» loo low by four pulsations at least. 
