Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

770 Cure of Stricture of the Urethra. [November,ing muscular and bony structure) ; lime-water, to provide limeto blood. 2d. These last also acted as some of the remedies calculatedto allay local irritation of the alimentary canal. Carminativeswere useful, such as dill, but especially cinnamonpowder,to correct flatus and to check diarrhoea. Anodyneswere also (however objected to generally,) strongly recommendedby the author. For the diarrhoea, when present, nitrate ofsilver and sulphate of copper were the best remedies. Winewas also found very serviceable, even if given in large quantities.These remedies, however, it must be confessed, proved inmost cases of no avail in the third stage, which was, he mightsay, almost incurable ; but they acted very effectively in thesecond and first stages.—Lancet and American Journal.Perineal Section for Cure of Stricture of theUrethra.Mr. Henry Smith states, that " about a fortnight since I hadinmy house on the same morning, two unfortunate gentlemen,in the prime of life, who had undergone the perineal section;one, five years since at the hands of a London surgeon of largeexperience ;the other, three years previously, had been cut byMr. Syme himself in Edinburg. They were both in a wretchedcondition ; the one had his perineum riddled with three fistulousopenings, but as Mr. Syme himself was not the operatorhere, the proceeding was of course unskilfully and improperlydone, and I will say no more about it. The other case, however,was treated by Mr. Syme himself, and the operation wasof necessity done according to the rules laid down by that surgeon.Yet, where is the complete remedy? The unfortunategentleman assured me, that before he left Mr. Syme's care afterthe operation, he felt the stricture returning, and that notwithstandinghe persisted in passing the instrument every fortnight,as he was told to do, the canal contracted, so that he was unableat the expiration of ten months to pass anything at all.Since then he has been roaming about from one surgeon toanother, in the hope of getting his stricture dilated. When hefirst consulted me some six weeks since, I could only with thegreatest perseverance, succeed in introducing a small No. 4catheter, although a distinguished surgeon in Dublin had introduceda No. 8 only a fortnight previous. There was no fistulousopening left here, as in the other ; but there is the irritabilityand contractility of the uretha as before, although Mr.Syme performed the operation himself, and according to the informationgiven to me by the patient, assured him it would bea certain cure. I have before enunciated the opinion, that notonly does this operation not prevent the return of the stricture,