Read in Section on Diseases of Children of American Medical Association, May, 1884.
How a subject of as much importance should have so long escaped presentation and discussion before the American Medical Association is surprising; but the fact exists that it never has been presented to this body, and for that reason I have chosen it.
There is not much importance attached to the history of the disease. With the assistance of Drs. Kolipinski and McArdle, of this city, I have examined all the literature on the subject from 1784 to the present, including articles in German, French, Italian and Spanish. In 1784 Mitchell wrote on the disease as clearly as any subsequent author, and its pathology was as well understood then as now. The tendency at that time was to let it alone with a hope that puberty would restore the function of the bladder.
From birth the child