A treatise on retention of urine : caused by strictures in the urethra, and of the means by which obstructions of this canal may be effectually removed / by Théodore Ducamp ; translated from the French, with notes and additions, by William M. Herbert.

  • Ducamp, Théodore, 1793-1823.
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on retention of urine : caused by strictures in the urethra, and of the means by which obstructions of this canal may be effectually removed / by Théodore Ducamp ; translated from the French, with notes and additions, by William M. Herbert. 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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    discharge of a small quantity ; an evidence that the blad- der has not been entirely emptied. He experiences, par- ticularly after having retained his water some time, a sense of weight in the groins, and pain above the symphysis pubis; if the hand be applied to the latter part, a smooth, hard tumour will be felt, which, upon being pressed, causes exquisite pain, and most commonly excites a degree of micturition. This tumour is formed by the bladder inordinately distended. In this stage of the disease, the slightest fatigue or the least excess may cause an entire obstruction of the passage of the urine, and reduce the patient to a very critical state. But the difficulty of making water may arrive at a still greater height. Indeed, we sometimes meet with persons, in whom the stream is so feeble, that instead of being pro- jected to a distance from the penis, it falls vertically be-, tween the legs, like the jet of a glass-cutter's wheel.* The condition of others, again, is yet more deplorable ; the urine escaping only drop by drop, and the quantity discharged at a time not amounting to more than four or five teaspoons full, although the patient occupy ten mi- nutes in the attempt. Persons in this state feel a constant inclination to make water; and their existence is passed in miserable perplexity, between the desire and the dread of obeying an urgent impulse. Indeed, nothing can be more painful or exhausting than the urinary evacuation, under such circumstances; so laborious are the efforts of the patient, that his knees tremble, his face becomes flushed, the perspiration bursts from his forehead, and the contents of the rectum accompany those of the bladder, so that the same posture becomes necessary for the latter