82 OPERATION FOR THE STONE IN THE CLADDER. 
oil; and they had scarcely entered the bladder ere they struck 
against the stone, with a ring so loud, as to make us believe that 
it was very dense. I easily seized it by its small diameter; but 
just as I was about to free it from the neck of the bladder, and 
was grasping it firmly for that purpose, it broke, and was reduced 
to a mass of gravel, in the centre of which were three or four 
fragments of the size of a small nut. I removed these, one after 
another, with the forceps. With the same instrument, the blades 
of which were very large, I likewise withdrew a portion of the 
gravel; but this mode of proceeding not being sufficiently ex¬ 
peditious, and there likewise being danger of bruising the rugae 
of the mucous membrane, I made use of une curette a rectum 
(a little scoop or spoon-shaped instrument), with which I removed 
a great part of the mass that remained, promptly, and without 
giving pain. In order perfectly to empty the bladder of the 
debris, I injected several times a quantity of warm water, which 
always brought out with it a quantity of gravel, and I only 
ceased the injections when there were no more calculous particles 
to be expelled. 
The mare did not appear to have suffered much by the operation, 
yet the pulse was full but not accelerated, and the membrane of 
the eye somewhat injected. The animal was put on spare diet. 
Mucilaginous enemata, rendered more soothing by a decoction of 
poppy-heads, were thrown up, and likewise into the vagina, 
and directed principally to the side of the meatus urinarius, and 
repeated every half-hour during the day. 
In the course of the day, the patient several times put herself 
in the posture for voiding her urine, but the efforts were less 
violent than before the operation; and she ejected each time 
a little urine slightly tinged with blood, but not mingled with 
any gravel: she drank her white water well, and ate two mea¬ 
sures of chaff. 
day .—The pulse is natural; the conjunctiva no longer 
injected, and the animal is looking out for food : she stales at 
longer intervals.—The same treatment. 
St/ day .—She continues to improve. The same treatment 
with a liltle walking exercise. 
4^/t day .—Much better. She discharged her urine once only 
in the course of the day, and no effort attended the act of voiding 
her urine. 
\0th dai /.—She was returned to her owner, apparently well. 
An examination of different portions of the calculus proved 
that, before it was broken, it was composed of an agglomeration 
of a great number of small hard particles, united together by an 
earthy substance of little consistence. These particles w'ere gene- 
