Fig. 3, Plate 59.--In this there are seen three separate strictures, a, b, c, situated in the urethra, anterior to the bulb. In some cases there are many more strictures (even to the number of six or seven) situated in various parts of the urethra; and it is observed that when one stricture exists, other slight tightnesses in different parts of the canal frequently attend it. (Hunter.) When several strictures occur in various parts of the urethra, they may occasion as much difficulty in passing an instrument as if the whole canal between the extreme constrictions were uniformly narrowed. [Illustration] Plate 59.--Figure 3. Fig. 4, Plate 59.--In this the canal is constricted at the point a, midway between the bulb and glans. A false passage has been made under the urethra by an instrument which passed out of the canal at the point f, anterior to the stricture a, and re-entered the canal at the point c, anterior to the bulb. When a false passage of this kind happens to be made, it will become a permanent outlet for the urine, so long as the stricture remains. For it can be of no avail that we avoid re-opening the anterior perforation by the catheter, so long as the urine prevented from flowing by the natural canal enters the posterior perforation. Measures should be at once taken to remove the stricture. [Illustration] Plate 59.--Figure 4. Fig. 5, Plate 59.--The stricture a appears midway between the bulb and glans, the area of the passage through the stricture being sufficient only to admit a bristle to pass. It would seem almost impossible to pass a catheter through a stricture so close as this, unless by a laceration of the part, combined with dilatation. [Illustration] Plate 59.--Figure 5. Fig. 6, Plate 59.--Two instruments, a, b, have made false passages beneath the mucous membrane, in a case where no stricture at all existed. The resistance which the instruments encountered in passing out of the canal having been mistaken, no doubt, for that of passing through a close stricture. [Illustration] Plate 59.--Figure 6. Fig. 7, Plate 59.--A bougie, b b, is seen to perforate the urethra anterior to the stricture c, situated an inch behind the glans, and after traversing the substance of the right corpus cavernosum d, for its whole length, re-enters the neck of the bladder through the body of the prostate. [Illustration] Plate 59.--Figure 7. Fig. 8, Plate 59.--A bougie, c c, appears tearing and passing beneath the lining membrane, d d, of the prostatic urethra. It is remarked that the origin of a false passage is in general anterior to the stricture. It may, however, occur at any part of the canal in which no stricture exists, if the hand that impels the instrument be not guided by a true knowledge of the form of the urethra; and perhaps the accident happening from this cause is the more general rule of the two. [Illustration] Plate 59.--Figure 8.