An essay on the lithontriptic virtues of the gastric liquor / by John Syng Dorsey.

  • Dorsey, John Syng, 1783-1818.
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the lithontriptic virtues of the gastric liquor / by John Syng Dorsey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    It was not until chemistry had made great pro- gress, towards its present advanced stage of perfec- tion, that the true nature of urinary calculi became developed. Scheele and Bergman were the first who undertook the inquiry into their component parts. The torch of Analysis has illuminated the object of their investigation, and enabled them to ascertain, that, however different in their appearance, urinary calculi are composed of the same constituent prin- ciples; the chief of which is, an oily, dry, volatile acid, united to some gelatinous matter, and a minute portion of calcareous earth*. The acid nature of the substance which consti- tutes the calculus, has been denied by some; but it possesses so many of the properties of acids, that there should be no hesitation in classing it among themj-. Since the discovery of the lithic acid, and its de- tection in healthy urine, the opinion of physicians has been almost unanimous, respecting the genera- tion of stone. The theory now received is, that the lithic acid is secreted as a component part of the urine, and that its concretion is the source of all the evils proceeding from urinary calculi. The calculous dia^ thesis consists in an increased secretion of the mat- ter just mentioned. The experiment of Nuck, related in his Adeno- graphia CuriosaJ, and so frequently quoted, proves that the presence of a nucleus in the bladder, to * Scheele's Chemical Essays. t Vid. Treatise on Gout and Gravel, by Murray Forbes. \ Adenog. Curios, p. 78.