OO PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO J 756. 



funnel a sufficiently hard and compact calculus, weighing about 1 oz. This 

 was contained in a linen rag, so that the urine might readily pass over it ; and 

 a person, who used the Carlsbad waters every morning, after having taken them, 

 constantly made water into that funnel ; whence it came to pass, that on the 

 l6th day the stone was half dissolved, and the remaining part was become so 

 porous and friable, that it almost fell to pieces. No one can suppose that the 

 urine of a man perfectly in health would have the same solvent property ; lest 

 however, that should happen, our author suspended a piece of a calculus, weighing 

 2 drs. in the same manner with the preceding, and made water upon it himself 

 many times a day; but this piece of calculus, after 12 days, was so far from 

 being lessened, that it had increased 2 grs. in weight. 



Our author, lest he should be thought to have depended too much on one set 

 of experiments, made others. Among several calculi, which Dr. Lieberkuhn 

 had communicated to him, there was one exceedingly hard. This he cut into 4 

 parts, each weighing exactly 80 grs. Each of these was put into a separate phial. 

 On the first was poured fresh oyster-shell lime-water : on the 2rid, Carlsbad 

 water : on the 3d, the urine of one who drank these waters : on the 4th, the 

 urine of one perfectly in health, and who only drank for his breakfast some cups 

 of tea. These phials were placed in the same manner with those before-men- 

 tioned, and their heat kept constantly the same. Every day these calculi had 

 fresh liquid poured on them after the old was separated. At the end of 20 days 

 these stones were dried and weighed. The fragment infused in oyster-shell 

 lime-water was found to have lost almost 3 grs. that in Carlsbad water 22 grs. 

 that in medicated urine 14 grs. but that infused in the urine of the man in 

 health had increased 3 grs. These experiments therefore leave no room to doubt 

 of either the solvent power of the Carlsbad water itself, or that of the urine of 

 those who drink these waters. 



Our author has a very curious remark in regard to a person who laboured 

 under the stone, and who drank these waters for 2 months. He daijy voided 

 with his urine a large quantity of white viscid mucus ; which, after filtration of 

 the aqueous parts from it, was found to be a white earthy powder, rubbed off as 

 it were from a stone. The quantity of this powder saved during the space of a 

 month, amounted to more than 3 oz. If some of this powder was put into 

 the urine of one who drank Carlsbad water, it was immediately converted into 

 a poultaceous substance ; but if into that of one who did not drink this water, it 

 fell quite undissolved to the bottom of the vessel. 



Dr. Springsfeld observes, that the Carlsbad water has great power in dissolv- 

 ing the tophaceous crust which frequently covers the teeth. During the course 

 of these waters, this crust most generally separates from the teeth, and falls off. 

 However great the power of these waters are in dissolving the stone in the 



