=Complications.=--Complications may occur along any portion of the genito-urinary tract. These will be considered in their anatomical order. =Balanitis.=--Balanitis signifies an inflammation of the mucosa covering the glans. When the mucous surface of the prepuce is also involved, as it usually is when the orifice is contracted, then the condition is known as _balanoposthitis_. In the absence of ordinary cleanliness of the parts this may go on to erosion or extensive ulceration. It is sometimes complicated with chancroid or chancre. When such a condition exists, and the glans cannot be sufficiently exposed for purposes of cleanliness, the dorsum of the prepuce should be slit up sufficiently to permit of complete exposure, while in some cases the edema and the infiltration will be such as to justify circumcision. When needed these operations should be practised even if raw surfaces are thereby left exposed to infection. Such possibility may be usually obviated by cauterizing a fresh surface, as soon as exposed, with pure carbolic acid or one of the stronger caustics, or operation may be made with the thermocautery. =Folliculitis.=--Folliculitis implies the extension of the infection to the follicles and lacunæ which abound within the urethral canal. As long as their orifices do not become occluded they easily discharge their contents into the urethra, but when so swollen as to become occluded they lead to the formation of abscesses, which, beginning in a minute way, may sometimes give relatively extensive disturbance. These discharge internally; sometimes they so present that they may be opened externally, as they should be under these circumstances. They form a communication between the urethra and the exterior, and in this manner the majority of the ordinary urinary fistulæ are produced. These often occur in the perineum, but sometimes even in the pendulous portion. =Peri-urethritis.=--Inflammation frequently extends beyond the anatomical confines of the urethra, and produces a degree of infiltration which is often well marked and disastrous. The site of such a lesion is marked by a nodule, more or less tender, which may subsequently break down into an abscess. The pus from these abscesses will usually escape into the urethra. Sometimes it burrows into the tissues of the corpus spongiosum, or travels even farther, and produces locally extensive destruction of tissue, with its possibility of urinary infiltration as a sequel, and all the septic disturbances which can be imagined as resulting therefrom. Thus fistulas often follow abscess formation, and these may be succeeded by phlebitis of the peri-urethral and prostatic plexuses, extensive destruction or multiple abscesses, or even gangrene and pyemia. Peri-urethritis is the essential factor in the production of strictures of the urethra, which constitute an exceedingly common condition.