VOL. L.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 117 



//. Observations on the Case of the late Lord JValpole, of fVoolterton. In a 

 Letter to Dr. John Pringle, F. R. S. Bij Robert TVhytl* M.D., F.R.S, 

 Dated Edinburgh, March 1 6, 1757. p. 209. 



Physicians have not perhaps differed more widely in any thing than in their 

 opinions of the medicines lately proposed for the cure of the stone. While some 

 imagined, that Mrs. Stephens's medicines, or soap -and lime-water, were in most 

 cases to accomplish a dissolution of the stone ; others have been positive, that 

 nothing of this kind was to be expected from them : nay, they have condemned 

 these medicines, when used in large quantities, and long persisted in, as hurtful 

 to the stomach, guts, and urinary passages ; and have ascribed the remarkable 

 ease, which ihey almost always give to calculous patients, to their depositing a 

 calcareous powder on the surface of the stone, by which it is rendered less hurtful 

 to the bladder. And this opinion seems to have been not a little strengthened by 

 the great quantity of white sediment observed in the urine of those patients who 

 have used soap and lime-water in considerable quantities. Now as I am of opi- 

 nion (says Dr. W.) that most of these objections and doubts, concerning the 

 effects of soap and lime-water in the cure of the stone, may be cleared by a 



* Dr Robeit Whytt, a celebrated professor of medicine in the university of Edinburgh, and author 

 of ^ome valuable physiological works, was born in 1714. He studied physic first at Edinburgh, and 

 afterwards at Leyden, but took his degree of m.d. at Rheims. On his return from the continent, 

 after passing some time in London, he repaired to Edinburgh, where he established himself in 

 practice. About 9 years after he was elected to the professorship of the institutions of medicine, on 

 the resignation of Dr. Sinclair. This office, together with that of clinical lecturer, he continued to 

 discharge with great reputation upwards of 20 years ; during which he published his Essay on the 

 Vital and other Involuntary Motions of Animals ; his Essay on the Virtues of Lime-water and Soap 

 in the cure of the Stone ; his Physiological Essays, in 2 parts ; of which the first part is in a great 

 measure supplementary to his Essay on Vital Motions, consisting of a disquisition on the causes 

 which promote the circulation of the fluids in the smaller vessels of the animal body ; the 2d part 

 consists of observations on sensibility and irritability, a subject to which the attention of many philo- 

 sophical inquirers was at that time directed, by the writings of Haller, against whose doctrine Dr. 

 Whytt proved a most formidable opponent. Another work published by Dr. W. during the period 

 above mentioned was his Observations on Nervous, Hypochondriac, and Hysteric Disorders, partly- 

 theoretical and partly practical. 



Bv these and other works Dr. W, attained a high degree of celebrity, not only as a physiologist, 

 but also as a practical physician ; and for his ingenious and useful inquiries in these and other depart- 

 ments of medical science, he had the honour of being chosen r.R.s.j of being appointed first phy- 

 sician to the king in Scotland, and of being elected president of the Edinburgh College of Physicians. 

 Two years after his decease appeared his Treatise on the Dropsy of the Brain. A complete collection 

 of his works was printed after his death (which happened in 1766) under the superintendance of his 

 son and Sir J. Pringle. 



Dr. Whytt was one of the greatest ornaments which the medical school of Edinburgh has to boast 

 of. Haller, some of whose physiological opinions Dr. W. took so much pains to controvert, has with 

 candour and liberality rarely equalled, said of him, magni certe ingenii vir fuit et perspicacis. 



