A dissertation on the anomalous cases of disease affecting the rectum and bladder : connected with a constipated state of the bowels, and retention of the urine : submitted to the examination of the provosts, trustees, and medical professors of the University of Pennsylvania, as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by John A. Elkinton, of New Jersey (March 3d, 1822.) ... : April 10th, anno MDCCCXXII.

  • Elkinton, John A.
Date:
October 1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation on the anomalous cases of disease affecting the rectum and bladder : connected with a constipated state of the bowels, and retention of the urine : submitted to the examination of the provosts, trustees, and medical professors of the University of Pennsylvania, as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Medicine / by John A. Elkinton, of New Jersey (March 3d, 1822.) ... : April 10th, anno MDCCCXXII. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    11 lions us against thus leaving the system in a flaccid and unalterable state, for debility and death, ine tumefaction in these cases was evidently trom the distended state of the bladder. The discharges which I mentioned took place, in the first condition referred to, where it was involun- tary and unsuspected by the patient, I will now un- dertake to explain.—After the bladder attains a cer- tain degree of distention, rising above the pubis, and pressing against the abdominal muscles, it acts as an extraneous body, and stimulates them to ac- tion. Tain is at onoe induced, and by the spasm which results from this irritation and unnatural con- dition of the parts, the abdominal muscles take on contraction, and thus cause a portion of urine to bo thrown off. The abdominal muscles being incapa- ble of action, below the surface at which they arc at rest, of course cannot compress the bladder suffi- ciently to evacuate its contents.* By which ration- ale, the bladder must always contain a portion of urine, so long as the kidneys carry on their peculiar province of secreting, unless the officious surgeon interpose his art, I have now enumerated cases which come on slow- ly, and where of an obscure nature. All of which required the catheter to obtain speedy relief. The catheter, in these cases of retention of urine, may be regarded as the primum mobile, and is the anchor of hope in many of the diseases of the urinary organs, [ shall now mention a case, suddenly induced, which was brought on by cold, and cured by Guv. Long continued exposure to cold, may bring on a spasraatic contraction, at the membraneous portion of the urethra, or in the parts contiguous, and thus cause retention of urine. In all or most of these rases, stimulants are? called for and may be often used with advantage. * It is understood that the independent action of the bladder is obtflded, by the paralysing influence of the disease, which more or less concerns that viscus; and its muscular contraction remains en- tirely enfeebled.