^ Dr. Venables on the Cystic Oxide, &C. 



place, great attention should be paid to the digestive functions ; 

 and if the urine be acid, the alkaHs may be taken with advan* 

 Uge ; on the contrary, if alkahne, the muriatic acid *." 

 , These precepts being founded on strictly chemical principles, 

 and as being too exclusive, will not be found to answer in 

 gctual practice. In rare and obscure forms of disease, in 

 which the sources of observation and experience are limited, 

 and in which morbid anatomy and pathology have contributed 

 but little to our instruction, we must found our principles of 

 treatment upon reasoning and analogy. In all cases of serous 

 urine; and in tendencies to an alkaline condition of this fluid, 

 indicating positive or approaching disease of the bladder ; I 

 am disposed to regard mercury as highly prejudicial ; and in 

 the same light I view the alkalis, and those salts which tend 

 to produce an alkaline condition of the urine. Of this de- 

 scription are the salts formed with an alkaline base, and a de* 

 jstructible or vegetable acid. I believe an alkaline condition of 

 the urine, if kept up for any length of time, is of itself capable 

 of inducing disease of the bladder f, even without any previous 

 disposition ; and this opinion is founded upon experience, not, 

 however, sufficiently conclusive to be admitted as a general 

 established principle. Upon these grounds I cannot but 

 deprecate the use of the alkalis, and alkaline salts compounded 

 with a destructible acid, in the cystic oxide diathesis in which 

 there is a tendency to urinary alkalescence 'l, and to a deposi- 

 tion of the phosphates with at least a disposition to, if not 

 positive disease, of the bladder. I advance it, however, only 

 as a general principle, subject to occasional modification. 



* On the Urinary Organs, Ed. 2d., p. 169. 



f I believe it is an observed fact, that disease of the bladder is a much more fre- 

 quent occurrence lately than in former periods. This perhaps some may be inclined 

 to attribute to the increased attention of the present day, and superior methods of 

 discrimination now prevalent. This will in part account for the observation, but 

 not to the full extent. I think the increased prevalence may be in a great measure 

 iittributed to the empirical and inconsiderate indulgence in several fashionably 

 medicines — as Seidlitz powders, &c. — and the popular practice of rendering hard 

 malt hquor mild and brisk by the addition of carbonated alkalis. 



I The urine, in most instances of the progress of the above case, was neutral, 

 even during the exhibition of the muriatic acid ; and when the quantity of lithic 

 acid increased, it seemed to me combined with lime and soda, &c., forming lithates 

 with these bases, but perfectly white, and which of itself infers a tendency in the 

 urine to become alkalescent. The very minute proportion in which these lithates 

 existed, did not permit a satisfactory and unequivocal verification of their distil- 

 guishing characters. 



