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[ 63 ] increase, as that I could not foresee any great hazard that was likely to attend its extirpation.

From the uncertainty in which I was concerning the true nature of the cafe, I determined to act very cautiously. I made an incision thro' the skin and cellular membrane, from the upper part of the scrotum quite down to the lower; by which I discovered a firm, strong, white membraneous cist, or bag, connected loosely with the skin by means of the dartos; I dissected all the anterior part of this cist, quite clean; and found, that, as I traced it upward, it became narrower, and seemed to proceed from the groin: This determined me to try if I could not free the posterior part of it also. In doing this I discovered the testicle, which was much compressed, flat, very small, and lay immediately behind the tumor.

The dissection of the testicle and of the spermatic chord from the bag, and from its neck (which I was obliged to do in order to preserve the testis) took up some time, and gave me some trouble; but, when I had finished it, I found that the cist was dependent from, or continuous with, a membranous tube, or duct, of about the breadth of a large wheat straw, which seemed to pass out from the abdomen, thro' the opening in the oblique muscle, along with the spermatic vessels.

When I had perfectly freed this duct from all connexion, I cut it thro' immediately above the tumor; upon the division of it a quantity of limpid fluid (not less than two ounces) followed, and the mouth of the cist expanding itself discovered a large stone, exactly resembling the calculi found in the urinary bladder;