VOL. L.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. l63 



when it is only poured fresh on the calculus once a day. What may have been 

 the reason of this su^prizing difference of the lithontriptic power of the Carlsbad 

 water in these different circumstances, he pretends not to say. He thought 

 it could scarcely be accounted for from the gentle motion of the water along the 

 surface of the calculus. Was it then owing to some very volatile active part, 

 which the water quickly lost, after being taken from the fountain ? 



But how great soever the dissolving power of the Carlsbad waters might be, 

 when they issued from the bowels of the earth, yet that they did not communi- 

 cate a much greater dissolving power to the urine, than lime-water, would 

 appear from comparing the 2 following experiments. — In Dr. Springsfeld's exper. 

 (a) above, the urine of a person, who drank the Carlsbad waters, reduced, in 

 14 days, a piece of calculus, weighing 30 grs. to 25 grs. And in an experiment 

 made by Dr. Newcome, now Lord Bishop of LlandafF, who drank 4 English 

 pints of oystershell lime-water daily, his Lordship's urine reduced, in 4 months, 

 a piece of calculus, weighing 3 1 grs. to 3 small bits, weighing in all 6 grs. 

 Whence it followed, that the dissolving power of his Lordship's urine must have 

 been to the dissolving power of the urine of the person who drank the Carlsbad 

 waters, nearly as 35 to 65. But if we consider, that the calculus infused in the 

 urine of the person who drank the Carlsbad waters was kept always in a heat of 

 96 degrees, while in Dr. Newcome's experiment, which was made during part of 

 the autumn and winter, no artificial heat was used, it will appear probable, that 

 the dissolving power of his Lordship's urine was little inferior to that of the 

 person who drank the Carlsbad waters ; for lime-water, in a heat of 96 degrees, 

 dissolves the calculus at least twice as fast, as in the common heat of the air in 

 winter. Further, if it be attended to, that the quantity of Carlsbad waters 

 drank every day before dinner is from 6 to 8 lb. while his Lordship only drank 

 4lb. of lime-water in 24 hours, it will follow, that whatever the different dissol- 

 ving powers of the lime-water and Carlsbad waters may be out of the body, yet 

 the former seemed, in proportion to the quantity drank, to communicate at least 

 an equal dissolving power to the urine. 



But without presuming to decide certainly, as to the comparative virtue of the 

 Carlsbad waters and lime-water, he concluded with observing, that though the 

 Carlsbad waters are less disagreeable to the taste, and may be drank in larger 

 quantity, than lime-water, yet this last may be drank equally good in all places, 

 and at all seasons of the year ; which is not the case with the Carlsbad waters. 



An Instance of the Electrical Virtue in the Cure of a Palsy. By Mr. Patrick 

 Brydone, Minister of Coldingham. p. 392. 

 Eliz. Foster,* aged 33, in poor circumstances, unmarried, about 15 years 

 * Of the parish of Coldingham, where slie had lived all her life. Her father had died of the 

 palsy seven years before. — Orig. 



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