Surgical and physiological essays. Part III. / By John Abernethy, F.R.S. Assistant surgeon to St. Bartholomew's hospital; and lecturer in anatomy and surgery.

  • Abernethy, John, 1764-1831.
Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical and physiological essays. Part III. / By John Abernethy, F.R.S. Assistant surgeon to St. Bartholomew's hospital; and lecturer in anatomy and surgery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    727/744 (page 233)
    OF THE URETHRA, &C. 233 diminith the morbid as well as the natural fentibility of parts by doing them a degree of violence, fhort of that which produces a kind of re-aClion in them, by which their fentibility is heightened. This is, indeed, the contidera- tion, which guides my practice in thefe and in many other cafes. If, even in ftridures of the urethra, the fentibility of the canal be- comes increafed by the introduction of bou- gies, or, in other words, if inflammation is excited, furely it is wrong to profecute fucli meafures at this juncture. If the morbid fen- fibility be diminithed, we may ufe more free- dom in the profecution of our meafures. In pading the bougie, in the cafes now under conlideration, it ought at firft, I think, to be fo fmall as not at all to difcend the irritable urethra. I have always curved it considerably, and kept the point in contadl with the upper furface of the urethra, as it paffes through the gland. I recommend warm bathing to the perinaeum, with a view to obviate or di- minifh irritation. If I find, on the fecond in- troduction of the bougie, the fentibility of the parts diminithed, it induces me afterwards to proceed