¢ 3901.) 
A MEMOIR 
ON THE 
URIC ACID, 
BY WILLIAM HENRY, M. D. F. BR. S. &c. * 
(Read Nov. 29, 1811.) 
SECT. I. 
History of Discoveries respecting the Uric Acid. 
TWN 
"T'HovGH the properties of the Uric Acid 
have not been well understood, until the last 
thirty-five years, yet it appears from the wri- 
tings of some of the earlier chemists, that 
they had made very near approaches to the 
discovery of its real nature. 
Van Helmont, by the destructive distilla- 
tion of an urivary calculus, obtained what he 
calls a foetid spirit, a yellow crystalline mass, 
and an oily product, all resembling the sub- 
stances which may be obtained by a similar 
* The principal part of this essay was published in my 
inaugural dissertation at Edinburgh in 1807; but having 
‘since repeated most of the experiments, I have corrected 
some of the results, and added those of new ones, 
