OPERATION FOR CYSTIC CALCULI. 
717 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
OPERATION FOR CYSTIC CALCULI. 
By Peof. M. Stalker, Y.S., Ames, Iowa. 
(A Paper read before the Iowa State Yeterinary Medical Association). 
I do not present this paper with the thought of contribut¬ 
ing something new to veterinary literature. I do not claim 
the credit of a discovery in anything I have to say. My 
work, however, has given me the opportunity for practical 
experience with a certain class of cases that may not have fal¬ 
len in the line of experience with all of you. No matter how 
thoroughly grounded one may be in the theory of any disease 
or operation, experience will throw some additional light on 
the subject. The simplest operation performed for the first 
time has its attending anxiety for the surgeon. If I can say a 
word that will aid one of you in performing an operation with 
less risk to the patient and less solicitude on your part, I have 
accomplished what will satisfy me. 
In the discussion of this question we wish first to arrive at 
some rational method of examination that will insure a correct 
diagnosis. There is probably no difficulty that is susceptible 
of clearer proof than the presence of a cystic calculus, and yet 
I apprehend that a large number of cases go unrecognized. 
A physical examination is perfectly simple and easy to per¬ 
form, and its results need leave no doubt in the mind of the 
intelligent examiner as to the presence of a calculus. The 
trouble is not in making the examination. The danger is in 
making one of the “ didn’t-know-it-was-loaded,” mistakes. 
Three cases of cystic calculi have come under my observa¬ 
tion at the college hospital, two of them within the last 
twelve months. All these cases had been treated repeatedly 
for colic. They were all looked upon by their owners as be¬ 
ing strongly predisposed to that trouble. The history of all 
these cases showed that they were subject to these painful 
attacks under the most varying conditions. No system of 
