On Gravelly and Calculous Concretkns, 21 i 



wine of easy acquisition, and drunkenness and public 

 houses as common as in any city in Germany ; we learn, 

 from Prosper Alpinus, that the disease is of very frequent 

 occurrence ; for, besides a mixed population of Franks, 

 Armenians, Arabs, &c., the Mamelukes, as well as many 

 other Turks of the higher ranks, do not, in deference to 

 the Mahometan law, refrain from wine. The Cyprian and 

 Grecian wines, if not adulterated, or become acescent by 

 dilution, and the warm temperature of that city, are, in 

 themselves, among the least objectionable. But, when we 

 consider that Paris is chiefly supplied with Burgundy, and 

 that yet in no part of the world does there occur more 

 mischief from the attempts to keep down and correct its 

 acescencv, we shall easily form an opinion of the quality of 

 the wine retailed in Cairo. 



To this abstinence, then, from wine and fermented li* 

 quors ; as also, perhaps, to the admixture of a large pro- 

 portion of the warmest spices in their vegetable food, tend- 

 ing to correct its acescent tendency ; we may ascribe the 

 rare occurrence of this disease in the more southern cli- 

 mates. 



Now, these more general remarks we find peculiarly to 

 coincide with the observations of the patients themselves, 

 as well as that of the physician ; for such as have laboured 

 under these complaints a sufficient length of time to be- 

 come acquainted with the juvantla and Icedentia, most 

 scrupulously abstain from acids, and acescent drinks of all 

 kinds, and, what they find most particularly pernicious, 

 beer or ales turning over to the acetous fermentation, or 

 hard, as they are generally termed. And, indeed, nothing 

 is more common, than that an indulgence in cider, claret, 

 or acidulated punch, nay, a draft of hard beer or porter, 

 should be followed by a fit of the gout and gravel. 



The connection between these diseases forms an interest- 

 ing and curious subject of physiological as well as patholo- 

 gical inquiry ; but, proposing to offer some observations on 

 this subject on a future occasion, I shall at present decline 

 entering upon it, and pass on to observe, that the bad ef- 

 fects of all acidulous drinks are fully confirmed by the 

 experience of our manv sufferers in Simpson's hospital. 

 Hewson, who lately died there at the advanced age of 102, 

 never tasted the beer of the house during the summer 

 months, and substituted milk for it j being taught by ex- 

 perience, that its acid tendency, during that period, always 

 induced bis gravelly paroxysms. And Clapham, who suf- 

 fered much from gout and' gravel, and was for many years 

 O 2 a ship 



