On Gravelly and Calculous Concretions. 121 



intermixed in their strata. Suffice it to say, that the very 

 dilute marine acid speedily takes up the earthy phosphates, 

 leaves the laminse of the uric acid bare and distinct, ready 

 to crumble, and of easy solution in the weakest alkaline lix-^ 

 ivia, and still more so in lime water : — a most important 

 consideration in a practical point of view. 



It would be trespassing too much on the already tried 

 indulgence of the academy, to go further into the detail 

 of the circumstances necessary to be attended to, and ac- 

 quainted with, to ensure success in the application of these 

 principles. These are already tolerably well detaileQ" in the 

 Connoissances Chimiques. To the gentlemen professors in 

 the school of surgery it more particularly belongs ; and 

 from the zeal and talents now in full aciivitv there, what 

 may not be expected ? Created only the other day, by a 

 Cleghorn, (a name as deservedly as universally revered ;) 

 fostered, afterwards, by the anxious care and talents of Mr. 

 Dease; we find it already arrived at a state of perfect matu- 

 rity, and holding out to the student advantages no where to 

 be rivalled, if indeed equalled : and that nothing may be 

 wanting to a complete medical as well as surgical education, 

 establishing a chair of botany, supported by the acknow- 

 ledged abilities of Dr. Wade, both as a botanist and teacher. 

 From the above experiments and observations v^e may pre- 

 sume to draw the following conclusions : 



That acids, and acescent drinks of all kinds, give rise to 

 gravelly and calculous affections, by causing a separation 

 and precipitation of the native uric acid of urine within the 

 body. That all acids, vegetable or mineral, nay, the native 

 phosphoric acid of urine, in excess, are equally productive 

 of this effect; the tartaric, perhaps, somewhat more so. 

 That, on the other hand, we find lime, both the fixed al- 

 kalies, pure as well as aerated, (even in the smallest prot 

 portions,) serviceable in these disorders, by uniting with, 

 and keeping in solution, this acid substance. I'hat they 

 also, in the smallest proportions, and diluted state, exert 

 itrong solvent powers on this acid in its aggregate form of 

 calculus, provided their action be favoured by degrees of 

 temperature approaching to the hunian. That, under the 



same 



