46 THE BUTYRIC ACID GROUP. 



ratory process is in any way disturbed, we most frequently observe 

 a copious excretion of oxalate of lime; it is most common either 

 in fully developed pulmonary emphysema, or when the pulmonary 

 tissue has lost much of its elasticity after repeated catarrhs ; on the 

 other hand, it is not present nearly so often in inflammatory or 

 tuberculous affections of the lungs (Hofle) ;* moreover, it is com- 

 mon in convalescence from severe diseases, as for instance, typhus, 

 mucus-corpuscles being then often associated with a trifling sedi- 

 ment of oxalate of lime. [The frequent occurrence of oxalate of lime 

 in the urine during convalescence has been independently observed 

 by Professor Walsh. See his paper on the oxalates in the 

 Monthly Journal of Medical Science, Jan. 1849. G. E. D.] I have 

 only met with actually pure sediments of this salt in three persons, 

 who, sometimes, (at somewhat considerable intervals), suffered 

 from epileptic attacks. It is by no means constant, according to 

 my experience, in the urine of rachitic children (Simon),t of gouty 

 adults with osteoporosis, of women with leucorrhoea, of patients 

 with heart-disease, or in urine containing semen. (Donna ) J 



In the dyspeptic conditions in which Prout and Bird have found 

 sediments of oxalate of lime, I have failed in discovering anything 

 of the sort; on the contrary, I have generally found the sediments 

 in the urine of such patients to be free from these crystals. The 

 reason why the English have so often found this salt in the urine, 

 may be, that in England (as we shall further notice at a future 

 page), the urine is generally in a more concentrated state than in 

 Germany, and as Bird very correctly remarks, oxalate of lime is more 

 rapidly separated from a concentrated than an aqueous urine. 

 Moreover, experience at the bed-side teaches every unprejudiced 

 observer that the appearance of oxalate of lime in the urine is 

 by no means accompanied by the group of symptoms which certain 

 English physicians describe as pertaining to what they call the 

 oxalic diathesis. QFor the arguments in opposition to this opinion 

 the reader is referred to Dr. Golding Bird's Urinary Deposits, 3rd 

 Ed., p. 230. G. E. D.] 



That the mulberry calculus consists for the most part of oxalate 

 of lime, has been long known; but most other urinary calculi, 

 whether they consist principally of earths or urates, almost always 

 contain a little oxalate of lime. 



This salt has only rarely been found in other places besides the 

 urine. C. Schmidt has remarked that it is often present in the 



* Chemie u. Mikroskop u. s. w. Nachtrag, S. 176. 

 t Hufeland's Journal, 1841. Dec. S. 73-88. 

 J Cours de microscopic, pp. 249, 322. 



