This description seems very definite until we attempt to reconstruct the instrument, when it becomes evident that more than one construction may be put on some parts of it. [Pl. XLV, fig. 4], shows the instrument as conceived by me.
CHAPTER IX
BLADDER AND GYNAECOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS
Catheter.
The catheter is very frequently referred to. Galen (xiv. 787) thus describes it:
‘When urine is not passed on account of excessive dilatation of the bladder so that it cannot contract, we draw off the urine with a catheter. Therefore an instrument like the Roman letter S is let down into the bladder by the urethra. A thread is passed into it which has in its tip a little wool dipped in urine. Then it is drawn out and the urine follows it like a guide.’
This method of preparing the catheter and the reasons for so doing are discussed at somewhat greater length in the following selection from Paul (VI. xix):
‘Wherefore taking a catheter proportionate to the age and sex we prepare the instrument for use. The mode of preparation is this: having bound a little wool round with a thread and introduced the thread by means of a sharp rush into the pipe of the catheter, and having cut off the projecting parts of the wool with a pair of scissors, we put the catheter into oil. Having then placed the patient on a convenient seat and used fomentation, if there be no contra-indication we take the catheter and introduce it direct down to the base of the penis, then we must draw the penis up to the umbilicus (for at this part there is a bend in the passage), and in this position push the instrument onwards. When in the perinaeum it approaches the anus we must bend the penis with the instrument in it down to its natural position, for from the perinaeum to the bladder the passage is upwards, and we must push the instrument onwards till we reach the cavity of the bladder. We afterwards take out the thread fastened into the opening of the catheter, in order that the urine, being attracted by the wool, may follow as happens in syphons.’