which a No. 4 or 5, or even larger, may be passed into the bladd^J
neverthelese, the symptoms are very severe, and dilatation, peraevw-
ingly employed, [N'oduces little effsct on the narrowing, and affordi
very slight or no reliet It is amongst these latter cases espeeifOy
that I have often witnessed the excellent eiacts of a division of the
MidttEated and unyielding ring whieh surroands the urethc^ at th*
point ofAtrictarOy and which oq other trefttmeatso efiectually, aiii^jb



ORGANS or URINES AND OKNBRATION. 163'

«iid ssifely coinbats. Hence it is thlit a letaark often hetfrd apfi^emra
to flie ioappropnate^^viz., that if an instrument of tbe size of No. 5 or 6
CM pass, there can be no occasion to make any division of the strio-
tlire. Sttch a remark, I rei^eat, is due to the erroneous assumptioti
Hist the calibre of a stricture is its mainYy important character, the
delTermination of which alone is sufficient to indicate its gravity; and
Hso thte kind of treatnient which may be required. Few greater mis-
takes can be committed in connexion with this subject than to endorse
tffis statjement as a path<^ogical truth. There are many otfier cbarao-
tinr9W%ich possess equal, if not greater weight, in determining the
ikitQT« and probable influence of a stricture upon the constitution,^
f|tae6h as the degree of local sensibility and disposition to inflammation ;
its liability to occasion severe disturbance of the nervous system, as
evidenced by rigors and fever on slight provocation, besidesf those phy-
sical characters of contractility and non-dilatability alr^dy alluded
to. It is the presence or absence of such conditions, and not the
ifiere fact of ifarrow calibre, which requires to be considered in
<9(>ming to a conduston respecting the appropriateness of any particu-
lar t^neatment

We have already seen that the physical characters just named are
found to affect more commonly those strictures which are situated
i^out four inches from the external meatus than those which eiist
l)elund that limit, or within the bulbous portion of the urethra. Of
this fact I believe a satisfactory anatomical explanation may be
afforded. 