Erasmus Darwin

“ An inability to empty the bladder frequently occurs to elderly men, and is often fatal. This sometimes arises from their having too long been restrained from making water from accidental confinement in public society, or otherwise; whence the bladder has become so far distended as to become paralytic; and not only this, but the neck of the bladder has become contracted so as to resist the introduction of the catheter. In this deplorable case it has frequently happened, that the forcible efforts to introduce the catheter have perforated the urethra ”