CIRCULATING SYSTEM. 363 



acute inflammations of the liver.* During jaundice, the 

 presence of bile may be detected in the urine. 



In some cases of the disease called suppression of urine, 

 the body is relieved from this excrementitious liquid by 

 means of perspiration. Dr DAWSON mentions the case 

 of a young woman, in which the urine was conveyed 

 out of the system by spontaneous vomitings. " She 

 vomited sometimes every day, and sometimes only every 

 third or fourth day ; and though these vomitings usu- 

 ally came on presently after dinner, yet what she vomit- 

 ed seemed to be mere urine, without any thing which she 

 had eaten mixed with it -f." 



Some notice ought here to be taken of urinary calculi. 

 These are found both in the kidneys and in the bladder. 

 They consist of concretions of one or more of the ingredi- 

 ents of urine, and exhibit considerable variety of structure 

 and external appearance. In addition to the ingredients 

 of the urine, oxalic acid, and its alkaline and earthy com- 

 pounds, have likewise been detected in them. Their origin 

 is obscure. In the kidneys, these morbid concretions usu- 

 ally consist of uric acid, or oxalat of lime. These passing 

 into the bladder, become nuclei, round which layers of the 

 phosphats, urats and carbonats are deposited, and also urea. 

 But these concretions may form likewise in the bladder it- 

 self, from the thickening of the mucus, or the deposition 

 of those ingredients of the urine, which, from being in 

 excess, may be only mechanically suspended. In the 

 human species, these concretions produce the most ex- 

 excruciating pain ; and it has hitherto baffled the skill of the 

 chemist, to point out a method by which their formation 

 may be prevented, or, when formed, their dissolution effect- 

 ed. But man is not alone subject to this painful disease. 



Annals of Phil. v. p. 424. f Phil. Trans. 1759, p. 216. 



