582 retention of urine in a horse. 
however unjust or unreasonable. This result must inevitably 
have followed. And let us further looic at the sequel. T.he 
practitioner struggling on for a few years, it may be for a 
mere pittance, becomes reduced to penury, his debts increase, 
and, finding he cannot pay them, he is, as a dernier ressort , 
obliged to defraud honest tradesmen by offering a composi¬ 
tion. All this misery and injustice being clearly traceable to 
and resulting from the want of a better understanding amongst 
the body of the profession in the town in which he lives. 
CASE OF RETENTION OF URINE CAUSED BY 
THE IMPACTION OF A CALCULUS WITHIN 
THE URETHRAL CANAL OF A HORSE. 
By Thos. Burrell, Jun., M.R.C.Y.S., London. 
On the evening of the 13th of June last I was requested 
to attend a gray gelding, the property of a job-master, who 
informed me that for the last two years the horse had been 
troubled with a difficulty in voiding his urine. 
On the day preceding that of my attendance he was ob¬ 
served to be making frequent and painful efforts to urinate, 
which continued to increase until the evening, when a farrier 
was called in to attend him, who certainly did his utmost to 
relieve the patient, if we may judge by the multiplicity of 
remedial agents had recourse to. 
I found the poor animal in a most distressing state, and 
giving every evidence of extreme pain. The respiration was 
accelerated, the pulse 80 and wiry, and the countenance 
anxious. Tremors of the muscles of the flanks were present, 
and these parts were bedewed also with perspiration. He was 
straining violently from time to time to void his urine, and 
in these efforts a small quantity was expelled. 
An examination per rectum showed the bladder to be 
greatly distended, which fact, coupled with the information 
received from the owner, led me to believe that I had to deal 
with a case of stone in the neck of the bladder. 
With a view of affording immediate relief, I attempted to 
introduce the catheter, but was unable to pass it more than 
about twelve inches up the urethra, owing to the presence of 
a calculus, which I subsequently found to be firmly im¬ 
pacted in this part of the canal. Having withdrawn the 
catheter and exserted the penis I could readily feel the stone. 
