Turpentine, copaiba, cubebs, and the muriate of iron are of service in selected cases, but ordinary astringents seem to possess little or no value. Benzoic acid, in ten-grain doses in capsules, sometimes improves the ammoniacal condition of the urine, but the stomach often rejects it. Boracic acid, which has of late been much talked about, in five- to ten-grain doses in water, three or four times a day, is of value occasionally. Quinine is serviceable where the nerve-force is failing. I have been unable to procure any very decided advantage from the use of salicylic acid or the salicylate of sodium by the mouth. The most important general surgical principle in connection with {132} chronic vesical catarrh is that which concerns emptying the bladder thoroughly and ensuring its cleanliness. In many, perhaps most, conditions of chronic inflammation of the bladder from atony, paralysis, obstruction, or other cause the bladder fails to empty itself entirely. There remains, therefore, a fixed residuum always in the bladder; and although this is diluted and partly evacuated at each act of urination, yet some of the pus, the bacteria, the ammoniacal ferment, remains constantly in the bladder ready to contaminate each new portion of urine as it descends from the kidneys. This must be disposed of, and the bladder washed out, if a permanently satisfactory treatment is to be instituted. The soft-rubber catheter is to be preferred where it will pass, otherwise the woven silk or the French Mercier instrument, and the bladder should receive attention at least once in the twenty-four hours, and oftener if required. The last drops of urine should be drawn off and the bladder washed with water at about 100° F., in which is dissolved some borax--a heaping teaspoonful to the pint--or other substance capable of disinfecting the contents or mildly stimulating the circulation of the bladder. Carbolic acid has not yielded good results in my hands. A host of remedies have been employed, but it is doubtful whether anything can do more good than the water mechanically, borax as a disinfectant, dilute nitric acid, minim i-x to the pint, as a stimulant, or, in some cases, nitrate of silver, gr. ½-x to the ounce, used with caution. The injections should be practised through the catheter which withdraws the urine, and repeated according to their effect. For cleansing purposes an injection of simple warm water may be used at each introduction of the catheter. A fountain syringe with two-way stopcock is the most convenient instrument to use for the purpose of simply washing the bladder, because the wash may be repeated indefinitely until it returns clear, without readjusting the nozzle in the catheter.