These irritations from the preputial irritability are not always so slow moving as to span over either months or years in their fell work. Instances of their sudden action have been sufficiently recorded as to warrant them as being classed as causative agents in acute affections that instantly threaten life. In the London _Lancet_ of May 16, 1846, there is a record of a very peculiar case reported to the London Medical Society by Dr. Golding Bird: "The case was that of a child seven or eight weeks old only, an out-patient of Guy's Hospital. The child had become almost lifeless immediately after nursing, and to all appearances looked as if under the influence of some narcotic. It had not, however, had anything of the kind given to it, nor had it sustained a fall, nor was the head so large as to lead to suspicion of congenital hydrocephalus. On inquiring if the child passed water, the answer led to an examination of the prepuce, which was found to be elongated, and had an aperture only of the size of a pin-hole, like a puncture in the intestines. The urine was dribbling out; it was evident that the child had never completely emptied its bladder. Mr. Hilton slit up the prepuce, and all the symptoms were immediately relieved and soon entirely removed." Dr. Bird referred to a case which he had related to the Society some years before, which was reported in the _Lancet_ at the time, of a child who fell a victim to a malformation of this kind, and after death the bladder and ureter were found like those of a man who had long suffered from stricture. Mr. Hilton has seen many cases similar to the one mentioned by Dr. Bird. The greatest benefit resulted from slitting up the prepuce. In this case the benefit was very remarkable, a partial paralysis of the left side, under which the little patient labored, being quite removed in twenty-four hours.