VOL. L.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. IIQ 



found in the beginning of the urethra must have been in a dissolving state, and 

 considerably lessened in the bulk : for if it had lain long in the bladder, and 

 never been larger, it ought to have been voided through the urethra with the 

 urine ; and it could not have arrived lately in the bladder, since Lord Walpole 

 had not had for several years before his death, any nephritic pains, or symptoms of 

 stones passing from the kidneys ; and since it is not likely that a stone of the 

 size and shape of the seed of an apple would pass through the ureters without 

 being felt. Now if this small stone, found in the urethra, was partly dissolved 

 by the virtue of the soap and lime-water ; it will appear at least probable, that the 

 2 larger stones in the bladder were so likewise. But though Lord Walpole's 

 calculous concretions had remained undiminished, and without any symptoms of 

 dissolution ; it would not therefore follow, that soap and lime-water cannot dis- 

 solve the stone in other patients, where the concretion may be of a less firm 

 texture. 



The Rev. Dr. Richard Newcome, then Lord Bishop of LlandafF, while drink- 

 ing 1 English quarts of lime-water daily, for the cure of the stone in his bladder, 

 poured his urine every morning and evening on a piece of human calculus weigh- 

 ing 3 1 grains ; by which, in the space of 4 months, it was reduced to 3 pieces, 

 weighing in all only () grains. On one of these pieces, weighing 2.3 1 grains, he 

 caused to be daily poured, for 2 months, the fresh urine of a person who drank 

 no lime water; at the end of which time the piece of calculus was found to 

 weigh 2.56 grains, having increased in weight a quarter of a grain. This same 

 piece being afterwards steeped in the bishop's urine (who continued to drink lime- 

 water as above), from June 24 to July 9, was in these few days quite crumbled 

 into powder. Since this experiment shows, beyond dispute, that lime-water, 

 unassisted by soap, can communicate to the urine a power of dissolving the 

 stone out of the body, it can scarcely be doubted that it must have the like 

 effect on it, when lodged in the bladder. And that the dissolution of the stone 

 in the bladder has been completed by soap alone, appeared evidently in the case 

 of the Rev. Mr. Matthew Simson, minister of Pancaitland near Edinburgh ; an 

 account of which will soon be made public* by Dr. Austin, who opened his body 

 after death. Mr. Simson had, from 1730, been afflicted in a less or greater 

 degree with the symptoms of a stone in the bladder : and in November J 735 was 

 sounded by Dr. Drummond of Perth, and Mr. Balderston, surgeon in this city, 

 by whom a stone was not only plainly felt, but also by the patient himself. In 

 February 1737 he began to take soap ; and after 1743 never had any gravelish 

 symptoms. He died in May 1756 : and when his bladder was looked into, there 

 was neither stone nor gravel found in it. 



* It is printed in this vol, of the Phil. Trans, p. 221 et seq. — Orig. 



