_Inflammation of the Bladder._—Cases of acute inflammation of the bladder are of rare occurrence; but they do occur, occasionally prove fatal, and always are productive of much general disturbance, which yields not without vigorous and active treatment. Gonorrhœa is most usually the exciting cause. On the sudden suppression of the urethral discharge, an inflammation sympathetically seizes the testicle, the glands in the groin, or the bladder; and when the latter is the seat of the transference, it may be held as the ratio of the severity of the disease. In inflammation of the bladder, there is a constant desire to pass water, which, when made, is usually in very small quantities, and leaves a sediment. The patient often experiences an insupportable inclination to urinate, with a sensation as though the bladder were ready to burst—whereas there may be little or no urine in it. There is much pain at the root of the penis, and it extends along the perinœum to the rectum, which latter is assailed with almost constant spasms resembling straining. There is considerable thirst, fever, and anxiety; the pulse is full and quick, the tongue furred, and all those symptoms are present that prevail during severe constitutional excitement. The treatment consists of bleeding, leeching, or cupping; relieving the bowels by castor oil and injections; giving mucilaginous drinks, administering opiates, preserving rest, and total abstinence from stimulating diet. If these means fail in subduing the inflammation it runs on to ulceration, permitting extravasation of urine occasioning mortification and death; but where they are effectual, the patient is soon left free from complaint. It often happens that the inflammation is not so vigorously treated, or it may be wholly neglected, and yet it may happily resolve itself without proceeding to the extremity narrated; but, unfortunately, it may degenerate into a minor but not less troublesome form, denominated chronic, and which, in fact, is the disease christened “irritability,” and the one, for obvious reasons, as above stated, for which relief is most usually sought, the patient having in vain daily looked for the subsidence of his malady. Having stated that irritability of the bladder must be treated with reference to its cause, it is obvious that more than non-medical discrimination is required. Where it depends upon stricture, the stricture must be first cured; where upon stone in the bladder, the stone must be removed; where upon sympathetic inflammation, the source must be attacked, and so on.