At eight o'clock, P. M. of the 1st of Feb. he tried to urinate, but could not succeed. He suffered great pain. Pulse agitated; face flushed; belly swelled, and globular at its inferior part; the subcutaneous abdominal veins distended, and the penis in a state of semi-erection. All attempts to urinate were painful and ineffectual. At ten o'clock, A. M., on the 2nd, M. AMUSSAT visited him, and passed a bougie. This was arrested by a contraction near the bulb of the urethra, and caused the discharge of some blood. No urine had been passed for 14 hours, while ordinarily he urinated 12 or 16 times through the night. The obstruction was so great, that none of the usual means of relief remained, except _the forcible introduction of the catheter_, or the _puncture of the bladder_. M. AMUSSAT resorted to the following plan which he had devised, and which completely succeeded. He injected warm water forcibly, but gradually, into the urethra, which, dilating the orifice of the stricture, forced backwards the thickened mucus which had obstructed it. As soon as the liquid injection met the urine, the patient cried out that he was saved, and immediately was able to urinate as formerly. At two trials, he discharged nearly two pints of thick urine. There was no return of the retention, the patient continuing well. Should subsequent experience confirm this experiment of M. AMUSSAT, this simple measure will be a most valuable substitute for those dangerous measures hitherto resorted to for retention of urine, in cases where the obstruction arises from thickened mucus, from small calculi closing the orifice of a stricture, from inflammation, or from what are termed, (justly or not,) spasmodic strictures. 51. _Tracheotomy._--In the Amer. Med. Review for April, Dr. JOHN ATLEE, of Lancaster, mentions that on Wednesday, Aug. 11th, he was consulted by a child ten years old, who had that morning, while running, put a button-mould into his mouth, which during respiration was drawn into the trachea. He complained of uneasiness in respiration, with a slight rattling, and pointed towards the upper part of the sternum, as the situation of the button. On coughing, a rattling was heard, and immediately after, a sudden check to expiration, from the lodgment of the button near the rima glottidis, requiring a sudden and violent effort of inspiration to remove the sense of suffocation. An emetic was given with no advantage. During the night, he had two or three spells of coughing, threatening suffocation. An operation was urged, to avoid immediate and subsequent dangers from the lodgment of this extraneous body, and was agreed to by the parents, and by Dr. HUMES, who was called in consultation. It was performed on the 14th of Aug.; a cathartic, and afterwards an opiate, having been given.