Oji Gravelly and Calculous Concretions. 123 



occasion for it. We covild therefore have no opportunity 

 of ascertaining the efficacy of injections into the bladder, as 

 recommended by Whyte, Fourcroy, and myself. 



I shall conclude by observing, that it wanid be interest- 

 iiio- to have it in our power to extend these researches to the 

 urine of those who live habitually on different aliment and 

 drinks, particularly of the acescent kind, as well as to that 

 of those who drink waters with mineral alkaline impregna- 

 tions. But this desirable object can be only obtained by the 

 toncurrent exertions and attention of gentlemen of the fa- 

 cuhy in different countries and situations. In private prac- 

 tice it is not to be expected ; for here, wherever experiment 

 is surmised to be the object, mistrust and suspicion take 

 placp of professional confidence. The use of the nitric acid 

 in our venereal hospital, I hoped, would afford some useful 

 facts as to its effects upon the saline contents of urine ; the 

 uric acid in particular. But I had not, as yet, sufficient 

 leisure for that inquiry ; nor could I, hitherto, obtain the 

 urine of those using it, with all the circumstances necessary 

 to enable me, at this moment, to draw any direct conclu- 

 sions from my examination of it. In many instances, a 

 morbid state of the urinary system (the urethra in particular) 

 took place. In others, the combined cff'ects of n)ercury in* 

 terfered : and in all, no certainty of its not being blended 

 with the urine of others not using this acid. I could not, 

 hovvever, help observing, that the few specimens, sent to me, 

 agreed in one particular, viz. their exceeding very little, if at 

 all, the usual healthy standard of acidity. This circumstance 

 must excite our attention the more forcibly, when we con- 

 sider, that two drachms of nitric acid, nay, sometimes three, 

 diluted in the proportion of one pint of water to each drachm 

 of acid, were taken daily ; whilst, on the other hand, a few 

 fjrops of the acid elixir of vitriol, or tincturse martis in sp. 

 salis, nay, the weak vegetable acids, and cream of tartar, 

 persevered in for a few days, impart an additional degree of 

 acidity to the urine. Would not this observation (if founded), 

 conjoined with the easy decomposable nature of the acid it- 

 self, and its action on animal matter, induce us to lean to 

 the ophijon of those who have already asserted that this acid 



is 



