£10 On Gravcthj and Calculous Concretiom. 



tiicdical authors of all times. Silvius observes, " Vins 

 acida tenuia et Rheiiana. inagis noccre calculosls quam 

 opima;" and the same is particularly insisted on in Do- 

 laeus's " Ency-clopaedia Ephcmerides Naturae Curiosorum," 

 and Rivinus's " JNIorbi Endeuiici," &c. Now, the wines 

 in these countries are well known to be of an acid quality : 

 and Hoffman asserts, and that too I'rom experiments, that 

 they abound in the tartarous acid, having found them to 

 contain a double relative quantity of that in other wines; 

 and to this we may add no small proportion of carbonic 

 acid. Linnaeus, in his dissertation " Dc Genesi Calculi," 

 inserted in the second volume of the " Amoenilates Acade- 

 micse," seems more particularly to point out acids, and 

 acescent drinks, as the chief causes of calculous affections. 

 He says : " Acida fermentescentia omnia calculum promo- 

 vent; hinc vina acida genesi calculi magis favent, quam 

 dulcia. Out acida vina copiose ingurgitant, podagrs ct: 

 calcuio plus expomintur, quam illi, qui terras calidiores 

 inhabitant, et dulcia vina hauriunt. Nee n)irum, cum 

 - vini Rhenani librse quatuor destillatione dant spiritus acidi 

 drachmas quinque ; et vini Tocariensis praebet spiritus acidi 

 tantum semidrachmam, teste Hoffmanno. Sanissimus quis- 

 que a potu acido saepe stranguriam incurrit, eo quod ah 

 acidis ingcstis particulae terrestres prsecipitantur." And 

 again : " Ouin podagra igltur et calculus ab acido gene- 

 rentur, nullum est dubium, id etiam ab eorum communi 

 C'ura, ad quam pergimus, luculcntius patcbit." Beverovie, 

 De Calcuio, 80, also observer: " In nullo vino tantum tar- 

 tari apud nos accrescit, quam Rhenano. De me ipso, quod 

 etiam ex plurimis audivisse memini, possum testari, nun- 

 quam Rhenanum assumsisse paulo largius, quin copiose 

 arenulas excernerem." 



The reverse of all this is observed to take place where 

 the use of wine is prohibited. Rivinus observes, that ia 

 the city of Batavia, where the pursuit of comn)erce brings 

 together a vast assemblage of the neighbouring Asiatic na- 

 tions, v^henevcr the disease occurs, it is almost always in 

 the instance of some Hollander, who, in his passage to 

 India, drank freely of bottled beer, and used souFCSOut. 

 In I'ersia, the same author, in his excellent treatise De 

 Morljs Endem.cis, observes, that whenever calculous af- 

 fection occurs, either in Ispahan or the provinces, it is as- 

 suredly in the instance of some Armenian; fellows, (to use 

 his vvords,) who, in every latitude, drink more wine than 

 water. 



Assin, in Grand Cairo, where the proximity of tlie Gre- 

 dioii islands, and ready conveyance by the Nile, render 



wine 



