OPEll\TION FOR THE STONE IN THE BLADDER. 81 
feel any thing distinctly, for this foreign body was not in the 
pelvic portion of the bladder, but occupied the fundus of it, 
which lay within the abdominal border of the pubis ; and on 
that account, as soon as I pressed lightly upon it with my fingers, 
in order to grasp it, and form some vague idea of its bulk through 
the parietes of the vagina and the bladder, it slipped from me, and 
escaped into the abdomen, whither I could not follow it. Soon, 
however, the mucous membrane of the vagina being excited by 
continuance of my hand within it, new efforts were made, during 
wdiich the calculus was pushed violently towards the neck of the 
bladder, and then I could easily ascertain its form and bulk. It 
was ovoid, and about the size of a goose’s egg. 
I have said, that in the violence of these efibrts the vaginal 
orifice of the urethra was pushed to the very mouth of the 
vulva. This again occurring, I profited by it, and introduced 
my finger into the urethra, and was enabled to touch a hard 
body, the surface of which was covered with asperities, so an¬ 
gular, that my finger, being somewhat hardly rubbed by it 
during one of the efforts of the mare, was slightly excoriated. 
This state of the surface, and particularly the great volume of 
the calculus, prevented me from attempting to extract it with 
my fingers, as I had been able to do with other mares when the 
stone w^as not so large : I therefore determined to cut the neck 
of the bladder, and to extract the calculus with the forceps. 
Having provided myself wnth the necessary instruments, I 
passed a canula through the meatus urinarius as far as the neck of 
the bladder: I then introduced a long bistoury through the canula, 
and attempted to cut the neck of the bladder, without success; 
on one account, because the go and come motion of the calculus, 
eveiy moment pushed against the neck of the bladder by the 
efforts of the mare, drove away my canula and my bistoury, and 
also on account of the softness and looseness of the neck of the 
bladder wdiich escaped from under my knife, so that I could not 
possibly cut it. I regretted that I had not at my command a 
cystocome cache (an instrument used by the human surgeon in 
lithotomy). Being obliged to do without it, I withdrew the 
canula, and introduced instead the index and middle finger of the 
left hand, resting the extremity of their back surface against the 
left side of the neck of the bladder, and thus constituting a sup¬ 
port for the back of the bistoury, which I directed with the other 
hand, while its cutting edge was brought to act on the right 
side. In this manner 1 was enabled, yet not without difficulty, 
to make an incision nearly two inches long. Very little blood 
was lost. 
1 then introduced the Ibrceps, after having anointed them with 
