ntities, but by and by more freely.
Then, after a week or two intervening, there may be another complete
stoppage, attended, as before, with intense suffering, which will have
to be again relieved by the use of an instrument.

The foregoing is a fair account of the usual progress of the disease and
its symptoms. As the prostate gland becomes more irritated and inflamed
from the natural progress of the disease, or from the irritation caused
by the passage of instruments, or the employment of strong, harsh,
stimulating diuretics, the urine becomes cloudy, and still later is
found to have deposited during the night in the chamber utensil a
quantity of thick, tenacious, and usually offensive mucus. There is apt
to be more or less discomfort in the rectum, or lower bowel, produced by
the pressure of the enlarged prostate upon it. Rarely, the first
intimation of a large prostate occurs through a sudden retention of the
urine, and the patient being under the impression that there was nothing
wrong with the organ previously. Closely questioned, however, the
information is elicited that there has been a long train of mild
symptoms, similar to those that we have described, preceding the attack
of retention of the urine. This shows the importance of early attention
and proper treatment when such symptoms are manifested. However slight
the inconvenience experienced, it should not be neglected. The disease
should be brought under control at the outset by skillful and
nicely-adapted treatment. Usually before a person suffers from
toothache, the decay occasioning it has been gradually progressing
without pain for from five to eight years. Just as the decay of the
tooth may be arrested by the early attention of the dentist, so may
prostatic disease by early attention be not only promptly relieved, but
permanently cured.

Disease of the prostate being slow in its inception and progress, is
also slow to yield even to the most skillful treatment. Being slow to
develop, patients rarely seek assistance until the organ has become so
large as to be seldom restorable to a size where mechanical means can be
wholly dispensed with for relieving the bladder. Most surgeons are too
much in the habit of depending on the catheter for the relief of the
patient, and usually instruct the sufferer how to use it, telling them
that this, the catheter, is to be their only doctor for life. Great as
is the relief afforded by the catheter, which has often save