230 



supposed to exert no energy on those substances, out of 

 the body; yet their beneficial eifeets, taken internally, 

 stand uncontroA'erted, by the experience of almost every 

 physician. 



Induced by these motives, I had, as far back as the 

 ^'■ear 1799, instituted a series of experiments, in hopes of 

 throwing some more light on this subject: and, perhaps, 

 chemically explaining, upon what ground, alkaline sub- 

 stances in general alleviate, whilst acids as^ constantly ag- 

 gravate, this afflicting disease. 



But, knowing that Messrs. Fourcroy and Vauquelin had 

 been, for many years, particularly engaged in the analysis 

 of urine, and its morbid concretions; and expecting, from 

 their superior abilities in researches of this kind, that the 

 object, which I had in view, would be more satisfacto- 

 rily fulfilled; I did not wish to intrude any observations 

 of my own on the public. 



After, however, most anxiously attending to the result 

 of their scientific labours on this subject, as they have 

 been, since that period, successively detailed by M. Four- 

 croy, in the Annales de Chimie, Memoirs of the National 

 Institute, and latterly, in his great and elaborate work, the 

 Connoissances Chimiques; and finding little, if, indeed, 

 any thing, illustrative of the subject, to which I would 

 wish to point the attention of the Faculty, as well as the 

 public in general; I again latterly repeated, with much 

 care, my experiments of 1799, and added some more, 



which 



