Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/211

Rh . A soft flexible catheter should be given in preference to a rigid or semi-rigid one. The best form is the red-rubber catheter.

The condition termed by Sir James Paget stammering micturition is frequently seen in young men, more rarely in children and adults. This stammering of the urinary apparatus is analogous to speech stammering, and occurs chiefly in those who are nervous and easily put out. It would seem to be due to incoordination of the sphincter and detrusor of the bladder, the former not relaxing synchronously with the contraction of the detrusor, or vice versa, and is sometimes caused by external irritation, such as preputial adhesions. Occasionally not a drop of urine can be passed, or a little passes and then a sudden stoppage of the flow occurs, and the more the patient strains the worse he becomes, until at last there is complete retention of urine. Very usually such errors in micturition can be cured by the removal of irritating causes, if they exist, and in these cases, as well as in those in which no such cause can be discovered, great care should be taken to avoid those difficulties which have given rise to the patient's worst failures. If at any time he should fail to perform the act of micturition, he ought not to strain, but should quietly wait for a little before making any further effort, after which he will often succeed. Regularity in the times of making water is also of much importance.

Retention of urine cannot be called a disease of the bladder, but may be the cause of, or result from, bladder disease. It may occur in paralysis of the bladder, or in conditions where the patient is suffering from an illness which blunts the nervous sensibility, e.g., typhoid fever. It is, however, much more commonly due to obstruction in some part of the urinary passage anterior to the bladder, as in stricture of the urethra or enlargement of the prostate. The patient can usually tell when he last passed any urine; but, even when no such information can be obtained, there are signs which lead the surgeon to a correct diagnosis. Thus, the bladder if much distended can be felt as a rounded swelling above the pubes, and it may even have passed to the level of the umbilicus. Percussion of the hypogastrium gives a dull note. When retention of urine occurs and the bladder is over-distended, it is necessary to evacuate its contents as soon as possible. If there is no obstruction to the flow of urine, the retention being due merely to atony or paralysis of the bladder, a flexible soft catheter is passed into the bladder and the water drawn off. But, when there is an obstruction which cannot be overcome, aspiration of the bladder has to be resorted to, the needle of the aspirator being pushed through the abdominal wall into the bladder. The point of puncture in the abdominal wall is in the middle line just above the symphysis pubis. The bladder has been aspirated in this way very many times in the same person without any evil result. But in all cases strict antiseptic precautions must be adopted.  VESOUL, a town of France, chef-lieu of the department of Haute-Saône, is situated 147 miles south-east of Paris by the railway to Mülhausen, at the junction of branch lines to Gray and Besançon, on the river Burgeon, which here receives two tributaries. The isolated conical hill of La Motte (1483 feet), which shelters the town on the north, affords fine views of the Jura and the Vosges Mountains. On the summit is a votive chapel (1854). The chief features of Vesoul are the palace of justice, the church of St George with a fine altar, the promenade with a monument to the gardes mobiles of the department who fell at Belfort in 1870 and 1871, a library of 20,000 volumes, and an archaeological museum. The population in 1881 was 9431 (commune 9553), the corresponding figures for 1886 being 9602 and 9733.

Vesoul, which is first mentioned in the 10th century, was originally a fief of the church of Besaçon. It afterwards passed to the house of Burgundy, and was fortified. The castle was destroyed in the 17th century. The town suffered much during the Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years War. Vesoul belonged temporarily to France after the death of Charles the Bold, was returned to the empire when Charles VIII. broke off his marriage with the daughter of the emperor Maximilian, and again became part of France under Louis XIV. after the peace of Nimeguen.

  VESPASIAN. , the tenth of the twelve Caesars, was Roman emperor from 70 to 79 in succession to Vitellius. He was born in the year 9, in the Sabine country near Reate. His father was a tax-collector and money-lender on a small scale; his mother, however, was a lady of pretty good family, with a brother a senator. She encouraged her son to look up in the world. After having served with the army in Thrace and been a quaistor in Crete and Gyrene, Vespasian rose to be ædile and prætor, having meanwhile taken to wife the daughter of a Roman knight, Flavia Domitilla, by whom he had two sons, Titus and Domitian, both of whom succeeded him. Having already served in Germany, in the years 43 and 44, in the reign of Claudius, he had the command of a legion in Britain under Aulus Plautius, and saw much hard fighting, reducing to subjection the Isle of Wight and penetrating very possibly into Devonshire and the neighbourhood of Exeter. He proved himself a thoroughly able soldier, while in his habits he was simple and frugal; in short, says Tacitus (Hist., ii. 5), "but for his avarice he was equal to the generals of old days." In 51 he was for a brief space consul; soon afterwards he went as governor to Africa, where, according to Tacitus (ii. 97), his rule was "infamous and odious," according to Suetonius (Vesp., 4), "upright and highly honourable," though he admits that there was a serious local disturbance in which the governor was pelted with turnips. On leaving Africa there was a story (Suet., Vesp., 4) that he got his livelihood as a dealer of some sort, which, if true, shows that he did not turn his provincial governorship to profit. He went with Nero's suite to Greece, and in 67 was appointed to conduct the war in Judæa, which was threatening general commotion throughout the East, owing to a widely spread notion in those parts that from Judæa were to come the future rulers of the world. Vespasian, who had a strong vein of superstition, was made to believe that he was himself to fulfil this expectation, and all manner of omens and oracles and portents were applied to him. He also found encouragement in Mucianus, the governor of Syria; and he had a soldiery thoroughly devoted to him, although he was at the same time a strict disciplinarian and reformer of abuses. Vespasian had, however, plenty of practical good sense, and he knew well how to strike down a foe. All eyes in the East were now upon him; Mucianus and the Syrian legions were eager to back him up; and on 1st July 69, while he was at Cæsarea, he was proclaimed emperor, first by the army in Egypt, and then by his troops in Judæa. The legions of the East at once swore to him the customary oath of allegiance. Nevertheless Vitellius had on his side the veteran legions of Gaul and Germany, Rome's best troops. But the feeling in Vespasian's favour quickly gathered strength, and the armies of Mœsia, Pannonia, and Illyricum soon declared for him, and made him in fact master of half of the Roman world. They entered Italy on the north-east under the leadership of Antonius Primus, defeated the army of Vitellius at Bedriacum, sacked Cremona, and advanced on Rome, which they entered after furious fighting and a frightful confusion, in which the Capitol was destroyed by fire. The new emperor received the tidings of his rival's defeat and death at Alexandria, whence he at once forwarded supplies of corn to Rome, which were urgently needed, along with an edict or a declaration of policy, in which he gave assurance of an entire reversal of the laws of Nero, especially those relating to treason. While in Egypt he became more and more imbued with superstition, consulting astrologers and allowing himself to be flattered into a belief that he possessed a divine power which could work miracles. Leaving the war in Judæa to his son Titus, he arrived at Rome in 70, where he restored the Capitol, rebuilt a great part of the city, enforced discipline in the army, which under Vitellius had become utterly demoralized, and with the co-operation of the senate put the government and the finances on a sound footing. By his own example of simplicity of life, he put to shame the luxury and extravagance of the Roman nobles and initiated in many respects a marked improvement in the general tone of society. As censor he raised