On stricture of the urethra / by Henry Smith.

  • Smith, Henry, 1823-1894.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On stricture of the urethra / by Henry Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    155/338 (page 135)
    ration in the perineum, it is not a matter of surprise that the same thing would occasionally occur after the employment of a bougie armed with caustic potash. I cannot, however, state that I have been able to trace distinctly the formation of an abscess to the use of potassa fusa. There is one case I shall have to relate, where there certainly was the complication of abscess and subsequently of fistulas, and here I had applied the potash twice; but it will be found by referring to the case, that there was the appearance of abscess forming before I took the case in hand, and that it was only not prevented by the caustic. Still, in order not to conceal any of the ill results which may have apparently happened in my hands, I shall relate the case fully, so that the reader may be able to draw any deduction from it he pleases. I shall dwell no longer upon this subject, but shall at once proceed to relate some of my own experience and observation of the use of potassa fusa ; and from this I think it will be seen that I am not disposed to agree in the assertion of Mr. Syme, that a real organic stricture cannot be removed by caustic, or that, on the whole, it seems more reasonable to conclude that, in the cases of alleged cure by caustic, there was no real stricture in existence, than to suppose that so improbable, or rather impossible, an achievement had been accomplished.* Henry G , setat. thirty, married, was sent to me Case I. at the Westminster General Dispensary, February, 1853, by a surgeon who had had him under treatment for stricture for some time, and had endeavoured in vain to * Symc On Stricture <>f the Urethra, p. 5.'5.