d then into the
lung structure itself. The disease is transferred from the nose into the
lung tissue. What occurs in the nasal, laryngeal, and pulmonary tract of
mucous membrane, happens, also, in the urinary tract. A gonorrhea, which
is a specific acute inflammation of the urethral canal, leaves behind it
a slight gleet, or chronic inflammation of the mucous membrane of the
urethra. This may give little inconvenience for a number of years, but
gradually it culminates in a stricture, or, implicating the prostatic
portion of the urethra, occasions inflammation of the prostate gland,
and, perhaps, enlargement of this organ. This gradually gives rise to
cystitis, or inflammation of the bladder. From the bladder, the disease
travels up the ureters into the kidneys, and finally _Brights_ disease
is established in these organs.

The mucous membrane lining the bladder also extends through the urethra.
Throughout the interior of the body, whether it be in the stomach,
lungs, or other parts, this lining mucous membrane serves as a
protection to the parts beneath, just as the skin on the exterior of the
body serves as a protection to the sensitive true skin and the tissues
underneath it.

THE CAUSE OF CERTAIN DISTRESSING SYMPTOMS. Close to the neck of the
bladder is a triangular space, on which the mucous membrane is smoother,
and devoid of folds, or rugae, and which is far more sensitive and
vascular than other portions of the mucous membrane lining this organ.
It is called the _trigone vesical_. This _trigone_ is the most depending
part of the bladder. If there be stone in the bladder, it naturally
gravitates and rests on this sensitive space, so that, when the bladder
is empty, the foreign body occasions inconvenience, until the urine,
trickling down through the ureters, and intervening between the mucous
membrane and the stone, serves as a temporary protection to the mucous
surface. Hence the pain becomes less as the urine is secreted, until the
water is again passed, and the intervening fluid thereby removed, when
the stone again presses upon, and irritates, the sensitive _trigone_, by
coming into more immediate contact with it. The greater ease with
patients afflicted with stone experience in a recumbent position in bed,
or on a sofa, compared with being in an erect posture, is easily
explained. The foreign body, when the patient is standing, walking, or
riding, falls by its own gravity on this sensitive spot; when in a
r