305 



Some Observations on Mr. Brande's Paper on Calculi. By Everard 

 Home, Esq. F.R.S. Read May 19, 1808. {Phil. Trans. 1808, 

 p. 244.] 



In consequence of Mr. Brande's observations, that either acids or 

 alkalies may be attended with injurious consequences, Mr. Home ad- 

 duces various cases, for the purpose of doing away the expectation 

 generally entertained, of relief from the use of solvents. 



The first case is that of a person who had been relieved of the 

 symptoms of calculus while taking saline draughts in the state of 

 effervescence, but in whose bladder were found, after death, as many 

 as twenty calculi ; but the prostate gland had become enlarged, and 

 had formed a barrier, so as to prevent the neck of the bladder from 

 being irritated by them. 



The second patient had used Perry's lixivium, with the same ap- 

 parent benefit, which, in fact, arose from the same cause as the pre- 

 ceding. 



Mr. Home has also found calculi in cysts, between the fasciculi of 

 the muscular coat of the bladder, even so many as three or four in 

 the same bladder, in which cases the usual symptoms of stone would 

 not occur. 



A gentleman having, at the age of seventy, voided a small uric 

 calculus during a course of alkaline medicines, continued to use them 

 at intervals for four or five years, suffering occasionally in a slight 

 degree, but passing no more calculi. After his death about 350 light 

 spongy calculi, consisting of the phosphates cemented by uric acid, were 

 found in his bladder, which, in Mr. Home's estimation, were occa- 

 sioned by the use of alkalies, in the manner suggested by Mr. Brande. 



Another gentleman, who was found, by sounding, to have a stone 

 in his bladder, took fossil alkali for about three months, after which 

 he underwent the operation of lithotomy. The stone was found, ex- 

 ternally, composed of pure triple phosphate of magnesia, in spiculated 

 crystals, while the central parts had also a mixture of uric acid with 

 the phosphates, so that the alkali had prevented the formation of uric 

 acid ; but the deposition of the phosphates appeared to Mr. Home 

 more rapid than before. 



On the Changes produced in Atmospheric Air, and Oxygen Gas, by 

 Respiration. By W. Allen, Esq. F.R.S. and W. H. Pepys, Esq. 

 F.R.S. Read June 16, 1808. [Phil. Trans. 1808, p. 249.] 



The importance of a process so essential to life having excited pro- 

 portional curiosity in philosophers from the earliest ages, the authors 

 of the present communication take occasion to trace the history of 

 their subject. Beginning with the conjectures of Hippocrates and 

 of Plato, they proceed to notice the first accurate notions of Boyle 

 and of Mayow, which were neglected and forgotten till the time when 

 Priestley and Scheele first distinguished the two constituent parts of 

 the atmosphere from each other. 



