Contributions to practical medicine and surgery / by James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James, 1794-1885.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to practical medicine and surgery / by James Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    de Grace, the time of immersion varied from five days to fifteen. SECTION IV. DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. Several reasons may be assigned for the circumstance that, amongst the numerous diseases of the urinary organs, stricture of the urethra and stone in the bladder have attracted most attention. They are common and dangerous ; being mechani- cal diseases, and remediable chiefly by mechanical means, they have appeared more than the others to be within the reach of surgery; and, unlike most other diseases, their cure can only be effected by art. Specific fevers are cured by the vis medicatrix naturce alone, and even a dislocation or a fracture, if left entirely to the natural powers (and denying that in- stinct would dictate replacement) is remedied to a certain degree, as the patient recovers with only loss of power in the injured limb. But if the maxim, laissez faire were ap- plied to stone and stricture, death, sooner or later, would be the inevitable consequence. Thus associated in danger, they are also singularly analo- gous in their nature and modes of treatment. A free pas- sage is required for a liquid excretion in the one, and for what may be termed a solid excretion in the other. In both the excretory duct requires to be enlarged, and it has been enlarged in both by similar measures—dilatation, incision, and rupture. We shall see, moreover, that the peculiarity in the manner of executing these measures which answers best for stricture is that which ought to be adopted in stone. In another respect, also, they unfortunately resemble each other; notwithstanding the attention that has been given them, the suffering and mortality from both continue to be great. c