Note 334 — THIRD SECTION. Relation of the Physician to Diseases consequent upon the Use or Misuse of the Genital Organs.

Galen, De symptom. caus. bk. III. ch. 8., ἴσχονται μὲν γὰρ ἢ ἀδυνατούσης ἐκκρίνειν τῆς κύστεως, ἢ στεγνωθέντος αὐτῆς, τοῦ στομάχου· ταυτὶ μὲν οὖν ἄμφω τὰ νοσήματα τῆς κύστεως ἓν κοινὸν ἔχει σύμπτωμα, τὴν ἰσχουρίαν·—αἱ μὲν οὖν στεγνώσεις τοῦ στομάχου δι᾽ ἔμφραξίν τε καὶ μύσιν ἀποτελοῦνται· καὶ γίνεται ἡ μὲν ἔμφραξις ὑπὸ θρόμβου τε καὶ πύου παχέος καὶ λίθου καὶ πώρου καὶ διὰ βλάστημά τι κατ’αὐτὸν ἐπιτραφὲν τὸν πόρον ὁποῖα κἀν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασιν ἐκτὸς ὁρᾶται γινόμενα κατά τε τὰ ὦτα καὶ ῥῖνας αἰδοῖά τε καὶ ἕδραν· ἡ δὲ μύσις ἤτοι δι’ὄγκον ἐπὶ φλεγμοναῖς ἀποτελεῖται καὶ σκίῤῥοις καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις οἰδήμασιν, ὅσα τε τὸν τράχηλον ἐξαίροντα τῆς κύστεως εἰς τὸν ἐντὸς πόρον ἀποχεῖ τὸν ὄγκον. (For they suffer either because the bladder is unable to secrete or because its orifice is stopped; but both these complaints of the bladder have one symptom in common, viz. retention of urine.... Now the stoppages of the orifice are produced by blocking or by closing up; and stoppages are caused by a clot or dense matter or a calculus or chalkstone or some growth that has formed in the actual passage, as is also observed to occur in other, external, organs, the ears, the nostrils, genitals, or fundament; but closure is due either to a tumour following on phlegmonous affections or by indurations or other swellings which dilate the neck of the bladder and discharge the tumour into the internal passage). Comp. Caelius Aurelianus bk. V. ch. 4.