Bladder Stone — A Historical Overview (2)

Abstract

During the early and middle nineteenth century most surgeons removed bladder stones by cutting the bladder, and in the majority of cases the approach was through the perineum. In Kashmir there was no one who could undertake that and the port of call for a stone sufferer was a Hakim, who would treat the patient with opium for pain and strangury, and with oral sheera (special herbal extract) for stone dissolution. During my boyhood days the Hakim with a reputation to dissolve urinary stones with his special recipe of sheera was Hakim Sham Butt of Haba-Kadal Srinagar, whose illustrious son Dr Raj Nath worked as Professor of Medicine at Medical College Jammu during the nineteen seventies. According to Prof. Girja Dhar, Mr Sham Butt was from the illustrious lineage of Butts of Shri Butt Wan located in the vicinity of Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) at Soura. (1)