216 CALCULI IN THE SHEATH AND URETHRA OF A DONKEY. 
the mouth I saw something beyond the dorsum of the tongue, 
which appeared at first sight to be a horse-hair. The idea 
of hydrophobia suggested itself to my brother, who was 
holding the cat, finding such substances in this situation. On 
grasping the supposed hair with the forceps, it turned out to 
be a threaded needle, which had absolutely become blackened 
by retention and partial corrosion. A tablespoonful of cas¬ 
tor oil was subsequently administered, and a few days after¬ 
wards I was informed that pussy was as well as ever, to his 
owner’s high delight. 
CALCULI IN THE SHEATH AND URETHRA OF 
A DONKEY. 
By A. J. Lang, M.R.C.V.S., Taunton. 
The accompanying three calculi were taken from a donkey, 
the property of a gentleman residing at North Taunton, 
Devon. The animal was brought to me on October 20th, 
1859. He was said to have been ill for several days, but the 
symptoms were now every hour becoming of a more aggra¬ 
vated character. When I saw him he was not unlike an 
animal attacked with violent spasmodic colic, excepting that 
the pulse was increased, and numbered 70 in the minute. He 
frequently put his nose underneath the flank, and often 
made attempts to urinate, but only a few drops of urine 
were voided. On being told that he had done so several 
times during the attack, my attention was consequently 
directed to the urinary organs. The parts presented the 
following appearances :—perineum much distended, sheath 
slightly swollen, and upon passing my fore-finger into the 
latter, I distinctly felt the largest of the calculi, its conical 
part being presented anteriorly. It however resisted all my 
endeavours to extract it, both with my fingers and the forceps. 
In using the latter, as you will notice, a portion of the 
calculus was broken off. 1 thereupon made an incision, about 
four inches in length, along the inferior part of the sheath, 
when the concretion was easily enough withdrawn. Behind 
it was lodged a large quantity of sabulous matter, amounting 
to about three-quarters of a pint, which tended firmly to 
impact the calculus as in a sac, the walls of which were 
indurated, as if the concretion had been contained in it for 
some time. Probably it had been passed out when of a 
