88 Account of a Biliari/ Calculus. 



illness, and at seven in the morning the gallstone, represented in 

 Plate I. fig. 1 , was passed. 



Friday, Aug. 4. The uneasiness and pain of the bowels 

 had entirely disappeared. She slept well during the night; 

 the pulse was about 80, and light food remained upon the 

 stomach. 



Saturday, Aug. 5. Late last night and early this morning, the 

 pain returned nearly as violent as before, the pulse became 

 again 130 and 140 in a minute, the tongue very white, and 

 drowsiness alternating with delirium came on towards the 

 evening, but there was no vomiting, nor was the abdomen either 

 painful or tense. Under these circumstances it was deemed 

 advisable again to have recourse to the lancet, and eight 

 ounces of blood were withdrawn ; the calomel and Epsom salts 

 weF€ repeated, which fortunately remained on the stomach, 

 and soon occasioned an abundant evacuation, after which the 

 alarming symptoms quickly decreased and every thing continued 

 to do well. The amendment has been progressive up to the pre- 

 sent time, (August 26.) The last attack appeared to have been 

 caused by the irritation occasioned in the bowels by eating a 

 quantity of currants. 



The shape of the gall-stone, as shown in the Plate, is nearl 

 cylindrical, with a tubercle projecting from its side ; its length 

 two inches, its diameter three-fourths of an inch ; it weighed 

 239 grains. One extremity was apparently broken, and two or 

 three fragments were voided along with it. The broken end 

 exhibits the appearance of concentric layers, the colour of the 

 exterior layers being rusty brown, while the central portion is 

 pale brown, and in parts nearly white. 



This account is drawn up from a memorandum of the case 

 transmitted by Dr. Blair of Brighton, and from a letter from 

 a gentleman in whose family it occurred. 



The gall-stone is almost entirely composed of the spermaceti- 

 like substance which M. Thenard has called cholesterine ; it i« 

 soluble in hot alcohol, and deposits crystalline plates as the 

 solution cools, leaving a very small portion of brown insoluble 

 matter. 



