Treatment of Cdlciilous Disorders. 217 



ance. In the other patient there were fourteen calculi, under 

 the same circumstances. 



Another cause of the disappearance of symptoms, and probably 

 not of unfrequent occurrence, is the lodgment of the stone be- 

 tween the muscular fasciculi of the bladder, where it becomes 

 embedded in a pouch, and occasions no further inconvenience ; 

 and in both these cases a further source of deception may 

 arise in the stone not being readily discoverable by a sound. 

 (See a Plate in Dr. Marcet's Essay.) 



Lastly, the symptoms of stone have in some few instances 

 almost entirely vanished without any apparent cause ; and in 

 two cases that have come within my own knowledge, calculi 

 have been found after death, the existence of which was not 

 suspected during the life of the patient. 



I cannot better close these remarks, than by again insisting, 

 both from the patient and practitioner, upon the strictest atten- 

 tion to the earliest stages of the disease, when, in the majority 

 of instances, it is in a manageable state ; and by urging that 

 attention to the nature of the urinary secretions, and to the 

 causes which modify them, upon which alone effectual pre- 

 ventive means can be founded ; and by recalling to mind the 

 very important aid that is to be derived from general treatment, 

 connected with the diet, the exercise, and the mode of life of the 

 patient. 



Little is known respecting the comparative prevalence of 

 calculous disorders in different districts and countries ; and, as 

 will be seen by reference to Dr. Marcet's chapter on this subject, 

 the means of information are very imperfect. We may, I think, 

 rest satisfied that peculiarities in the water of different places 

 have no influence upon the production of calculous disorders, 

 nor does the evidence appear conclusive respecting their sup- 

 posed prevalence in cider countries : upon these subjects, how- 

 ever, it is extremely difficult to gain unobjectionable information. 

 It is to be hoped that the usefulness of preserving calculi, 

 with the history of their cases annexed, will induce private indi- 

 viduals to contribute their specimens to some public collec- 

 tion, tliat of the College of Surgeons, for instance; whore they 



