On spasmodic stricture of the urethra : a reply to Dr F.N. Otis / by Henry B. Sands.

  • Sands, Henry B. (Henry Berton), 1830-1888.
Date:
[1878?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On spasmodic stricture of the urethra : a reply to Dr F.N. Otis / by Henry B. Sands. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    communication to the Froinncial Medical Jour^ial^ stating that the disease was endemic in the locality where this practitioner resided, and advising strangers to avoid the place, inasmuch as nearly every per- son who went there became attacked. 5. Dr. Otis is not aware that any surgeon has assumed the as- sociation between penile and spasmodic stricture to be invariable I therefore quote for his information the following: “Dans tons les cas de retrecissement penien, il existe un deuxieme arret a 13 centi- metres du meat, au commencement de la region musculeuse, a I’entree du col urethro-vesical.” ^ 6. I am blamed for dogmatising on the subject of spasmodic stric- ture, and for declining to scrutinise the cases that have been re- ported. On the contrary, I have sought earnestly, but in vain, for clinical evidence in support of Verneuil’s theory; while I have been unable to accept the reported cases as being free from errors of ob- servation. In short, we need satisfactory proof, not so much of the theory of spasmodic stricture, as of the “ formidable array” of facts on which that theory rests, and without which it cannot claim recog- nition. To show that I am not fastidious, and to illustrate my meaning, I call attention to the four cases mentioned by Dr. Otis, as having been treated lately at the New York Hospital, in which cases he alleges spasmodic stricture was “proven to exist,” and which, he says, “ would have been operated on by the perineal section, if the spas- modic character of the ohstruction had not been determined by a previous dilatmg urethrotomy. The cases are thus given by Dr. Otis. “Within the previous month a patient was admitted to the wards of the New York Hospital, suffering from deep urethral stricture. The stricture was a very close one, and located in the membranous ure- thra. The operation of perineal section was decided upon. Notices to that effect were issued. The patient, when the proper time arrived, was etherized, brought into the amphitheatre of the New York Hospital, and the perineal section was about to be performed. ^ ifetude sur les Retrecissements Peniens de I’Urctlire: Folet: Archives Oenir- ales de Median: 1867, vol. i, p. 424.