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lar portion, and the effusion of lymph beneath the membrane of the pelvis, existed as in the previous case. The animal was alive four hours afterwards, and was found dead about eighteen hours after the operation. The right kidney weighed 32 grs., and presented precisely the same appearances as the left. The bladder was full of urine, which contained no albumen.

Exp. 3. The left kidney of a very weak small animal was removed, and the aorta exposed. Some difficulty was experienced in passing a thread around the latter, in consequence of a great quantity of citron-coloured serous fluid accumulating in the wound; it did not flow from the peritoneal cavity, but was a mere oozing from, or through the vessels. The blood was very poor; its want of viscidity, as felt by the fingers, was very remarkable. The aorta was tied tightly, producing instantly the ordinary paralysis. The animal was killed at the end of five minutes; but, from the absence of any unnatural appearance in the right kidney, I did not deem it necessary to examine the urine.

Exp. 4. The aorta of a healthy young rabbit being tied, produced, instantly, permanent paraplegia. The left kidney was then removed, and weighed 30 grs. At the end of eighteen hours, the animal was still alive, but apparently at the point of death; it was then killed. The right kidney being examined, was reddened in every part of its substance, and presented on its surface some slight spots of ecchymosis, but it only weighed 30 grs. The bladder

contained about a drachm and a half of muddy red urine, which held bloody coagula suspended in it. On testing the liquid portion with nitric acid, albuminous flakes were produced.

Exp. 5. The aorta being exposed, in a young healthy rabbit, was included within a loose loop. The animal continued to run about without any appearance of paralysis. The left kidney was removed at the same time, and weighed 35 grs. Twenty-seven hours afterwards, the power of motion was still unimpaired. At the end of the second day it was found dead. The right kidney weighed 42 grs. On tracing the aorta, it was seen to be embedded in a quantity of lymph, that had been thrown out round the thread, but the canal of the vessel was still pervious. The loop had been applied about half an inch below the origin of the right renal artery, which seemed rather enlarged. The bladder contained nearly two drachms of urine, which was highly albuminous, forming instantly a large coagulum on the addition of nitric acid.

Exp. 6. The aorta of a full-grown strong rabbit was tied tightly, and the left kidney removed; but the ligature round the vessels of the latter having become somewhat loosened, some active arterial hæmorrhage took place. This kidney was of a lighter tint than usual, and weighed 82 grs. The ordinary paraplegia was present. Three hours and a half after the operation, the animal was in the same condition, and was then killed. The right kidney was enlarged and reddened; it weighed 112

grs. The bladder was nearly empty, only two or three drops of bloody urine escaping from it. On tracing down the ureter, its upper portion was dilated to the extent of more than an inch. A coagulum of blood plugged up the lower end of this portion, and on removing it by the division of the tube, a few drops of bloody urine escaped, then some clearer fluid, then a white fibrinous coagulum, and, above all, some twenty drops of clear urine. allowing the latter to fall into a watch-glass, without any admixture of the bloody urine, and then adding nitric acid, it was found to be very highly albuminous, instantaneous coagulation being produced by this test.

On

Exp. 7. The left kidney of a middle-sized rabbit, in rather good condition, was removed, and found to weigh 54 grs. The aorta was then tied, without any accident occurring, and was followed by the usual paralysis. This animal seemed to recover from the shock of the operation more quickly than some former ones; it was killed at the end of two hours. The right kidney weighed 85 grs. ; it contained six or seven ecchymoses of various extent, in different parts of its substance, but chiefly on the surface; its colour was much lighter than in those experiments in which the engorgement of the organ was produced by venous obstruction. The bladder contained about a drachm of urine, which was bloody and albuminous.

AN ACCOUNT

OF

AN UNUSUALLY LARGE BILIARY

CALCULUS,

VOIDED FROM THE RECTUM.

BY JAMES ARTHUR WILSON, M.D.,

PHYSICIAN TO ST. GEORGE'S HOSPITAL.

READ FEBRUARY 14тн, 1843.

CASES truly clinical are often best distinguished by their missing symptoms. The Biliary Calculus, large as a full-sized walnut, which I now lay before the Society, on its passage to the bowel, induced jaundice, yet gave no pain.

It was voided with fluid fæces from the rectum of a gentleman aged 73, after many days of exhaustion by hiccough and vomiting. The early symptoms in this case were constipation, loss of appetite, and sickness, succeeded by jaundice in the latter days of November of the present year, 1842. In less than a fortnight from the commencement of the attack, the urine and fæces had recovered their natural appearance; the skin was no longer yellow, and the patient began to occupy himself with his

usual pursuits. On the night of December 9th, he was attacked, while in bed, by sudden and profuse bilious vomiting, with a "feeling of soreness" in the lower belly. His moral energies were much depressed, and the bowels again became slow. Shortly after this gush of bile from the stomach, a large quantity of highly foetid, dark-coloured fluid. was ejected, likewise by vomiting. This offensive discharge soon became black as "coffee-grounds," and continued at intervals for about thirty hours. Alternating with the fits of sickness, there was intense clammy thirst, with frequent and protracted hiccough. Until this period of the complaint, when, by the removal of obstruction from its excretory ducts, the bile had again found free access to the bowels, there had been no local suffering in any part of the abdomen. The pain, of which the patient now first complained, was at no time severe, and seemed to track the long pent-up bile and putrid fluid in their progress along the intestinal tube. After a short interval of remission, on December 14, all the urgent symptoms returned, with frequent grievous aggravation of the hiccough. Food in the smallest quantity was refused instantly by the stomach, and for two days the case appeared to be fast verging to a fatal termination. On December 17, the bowels, long previously inactive, under large and repeated doses of calomel and other purgatives, began spontaneously to relieve themselves, and soon gave passage to the smooth globular substance, which is now submitted for inspection to the Society. The

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