167 furr. 
LITHONTRIPTICS. 
Medicines supposed to be endued with the powe 
of dissolving urinary calculi. This is the prince 
of bad classes. It isan absurd and misleading ag- 
gregation of medicines according to a virtue they 
have not ina single well attested instance, been 
proved to possess, when taken into the mouth or 
injected into the bladder by the urethra. On the 
other hand, numerous instances are on record of 
cases of stone treated by them, and followed by 
a cessation of some portion or the whole of the 
irritating symptoms of its presence—which caused 
them to be pronounced solyents, since the calculus 
could not be felt by the sound ; and yet death and 
dissection have brought to light the existence of 
these bodies, encysted. In the cases relieved by 
Mrs. Stephens, who received a parlimentary re- 
compense for her asserted cure of the stone, a 
similar envelopment of the caleuli were found, 
plainly proving that her vaunted remedy was in- 
capable of dissolving them. As it has been dis- 
covered by chemists that certain substances ina 
state of such weak solution as to be taken into the 
mouth and held there, without any ill consequence, 
and even swallowed with impunity, are yet capa- 
ble of dissolving different urinary calculi out of 
the bladder—it has even of late years been con- 
tended that these substances, or if not these, that 
some substances might be found, which could, 
taken by the mouth or injected directly into the 
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