The early days of surgery for stones in the bladder

Man has suffered from bladder stones since the earliest times. The oldest specimen of a bladder stone so far discovered was obtained at the excavation of a grave of a boy of about 16 in an ancient Egyptian burial ground and was dated at around 4800 BC. Of the triad of 'elective" operations first performed by our surgical forefathers--circumcision, trephination of the skull and cutting for the stone--only the last was for a purely surgical indication and not for religious or ritual reasons; it may safely be pronounced as the most ancient operation performed for a specific surgical pathology.