Aëtius and other of the Greek authorities allude frequently to the operation, but none of them describe it minutely except Paulus. Our author’s statement, that there is less danger from the extraction of large than of small stones, is at variance, we believe, with modern experience. Aretæus states that small stones are most easily extracted. He was, however, no advocate for the operation at all, except in extreme cases. He speaks of cutting “the neck of the bladder.” (Morb. Acut. Curat, ii, 9.) Does he not allude to attempts at lithotrity in the following passage?—ὄυτε γὰρ (λίθος μέγας) θρύπτεται, ἢ πόσι, ἤ φαρμάκῳ, ἢ αμφιθρυπτοιτο, ὂυτε ἀσινέως τέμνεται. (Morb. Chron. ii, 4.) Which passage may be thus translated: “when the stone is large neither lithotrity, or lithotripsy, nor lithotomy, can be practised safely.” Theophilus, in his ‘Commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates,’ states that in lithotomy it is not the bladder, properly speaking, but the neck of the bladder, which is muscular, that is cut. We now proceed to the Arabians. Albucasis, after detailing the symptoms in much the same terms as our author, goes on to describe the operation as follows. Having cleared out the bowels with a clyster, the patient is to be shaken so as to make the stone descend, and he is then to be secured in the arms of an assistant, with his hands under his _nates_. The surgeon is then to press upon the perineum, and, if the stone be felt, the operation is to be proceeded with; but otherwise, the index finger of the left hand, if the patient be a child, and the middle if an adult, is to be introduced into the anus, and the stone is thereby to be gradually brought down to the neck of the bladder. Having pushed it outwards to the place where you mean to make your incision, an assistant is to be directed to press down the bladder from above the pubes, while another draws up the testicles with the one hand, and with the other stretches the skin under them. Then with a proper scalpel the operator is to make an incision between the anus and the testicles, not in the middle, but towards the left _nates_, straight upon the stone which is to be pressed out by the finger. Let the incision be transverse (oblique?), large externally, but internally of the size of the stone. If the stone does not then start out, the operator must seize upon it with a forceps, or a hook having a lunated extremity. If there be more than one stone, the largest is to be extracted first, and then the others may be easily removed. When the stone is large he directs us to break it down with a forceps. His directions respecting the treatment afterwards are similar to those of Paulus. When the stone sticks in the urethra he recommends us to cut down upon it. His description of the operation on women is likewise similar to our author’s, but more circumstantial. Having got a dexterous midwife, or some proper person to introduce her finger into the