However, it has been stated that other causes may exist—that it may even be a primary disease in itself; and as this treatise professes to be a private mentor to the invalid, I will detail such measures as may be safely adopted for the cure of a complaint as often borne from being trusted to unskilful hands, as from a morbid delicacy in seeking proper and legitimate relief. The ordinary symptoms are, first, an inordinate desire to make water; it flows in small quantities, with pain before, during, and after. The urine has an offensive ammoniacal odor; it deposites a thick, adhesive mucus, of a gray or brown color, sometimes streaked with blood, and of an alkaline character. In this stage of affairs, rest is indispensable; sedatives and opiates may be given; but alkalies (rarely omitted in prescriptions for incontinence of urine) should not be indiscriminately given, for they only render the urine more alkaline, which occasions it to deposite calcareous flakes, that, if not passed off, accumulate, unite, and lay the foundation of that frightful disease, stone in the bladder. The extract of _conium_, or _henbane_, combined with mucilage, may be given in doses of three to five grains every six hours. The _tincture of henbane_, in doses of a _fluid-drachm_, or the _tincture of opium_, not exceeding _ten or fifteen_ _drops_ at a time, may be given in like manner, and continued for several days, keeping the bowels open with castor oil. The daily or alternate daily use of the hot, general, or hip bath, will afford immense relief. The various preparations of _morphine_, _aconitine_, and of _hops_, possess great power in small and frequent doses. The _uva ursi_ is a remedy of ancient note, and is often prescribed with advantage; the dose is one scruple to a drachm in milk, or any bland fluid, three times a day, or it may be taken in infusion or decoction, one ounce to a pint of water—that quantity to be drank during the day. The _pareira brava_, exhibited in a decoction (by simmering three pints of water, containing half an ounce of the root, down to a pint), may be taken in divided doses of eight or twelve ounces during the day, or in the form of extract, in quantity of a scruple, which equals the above amount of decoction. The _achillæ millefoliæ_ is an excellent plant, and possesses astonishing astringent powers, often restoring the tone of the bladder to a healthy condition, when all other remedies have failed. A handful of the leaves are to be infused in a pint of boiling water, which, when cool, may be poured off, and given in doses of a cupful three times a day. Any of the preceding sedatives may be given in conjunction with these preparations. Lime-water taken with milk, as an ordinary drink, is a useful corrective. The _buchu_ (the _diosma crenata_)—an ounce infused for several hours in a pint of boiling water, and a wineglassful of the cooled liquid administered three or four times a day—has justly obtained some notoriety.