HEMATURIA OR HAEMATURIADefinition.—Blood derived from any part of the urinary system— whether from the secreting, conducting, or collecting divisions—and passed pure or mixed with the urine, constitutes the symptom known as This symptom, though occurring at one time or other in the course of all the more serious diseases affecting the urinary organs, has not received that attention at the hands of urologists which its importance demands. This neglect is perhaps accounted for by the fact that until quite recently the origin and cause of blood appearing in the urine could not be diagnosed with certainty.
Its prognosis was moreover uncertain and its treatment was em pirical and haphazard.
Up to the date of the introduction of electric illumination of the bladder in 1888 by Max Nitze all our experience of the obscure dis eases of the urinary tract was obtained slowly and with difficulty, for it was acquired either by post-mortem examination or by opera tive interference.*
The cystoscope of to-day has, however, changed all this, for it en ables the surgeon in a very large number of cases of limaturia not only to locate the source of the hemorrhage, but often to determine its cause, while it enables him at the same time to treat it rationally and successfully.
But the electric cystoscope is neither suitable nor available in general medical practice, for this instrument demands considerable tactile dexterity, much judgment, and some knowledge of electrical technique. Its employment, therefore, is not advocated in this arti-. cle, and it has been attempted to incorporate the knowledge which has been acquired by its means in such a manner as to render endo scopy as superfluous as possible.