Prof. E. D. Smith on Calculous Affections. 309 



don, has furnished some information of this kind, and it is 

 much to be regretted that his materials were so scanty. 

 From his table it appears that out of five hundred and six 

 calculous subjects only twenty-eight were females. Upon 

 this fact some useful reasoning might perhaps be founded. 

 The habits of females are, commonly speaking, more seden- 

 tary than those of males, and yet it has been generally ad- 

 mitted that men, of sedentary lives, are more liable to calculi 

 than others ; but may it not be questioned whether in such 

 cases the influence of diet has not been too much overlook- 

 ed.^ Is it not a general fact that females are more tempe- 

 rate in their diet than males ; and again, resorting to the 

 analogy with gout, do we not find that the proportion of wo- 

 men, affected with this disease, is much less than that of 

 men ? With regard to calculous complaints, I am aware 

 that anatomical reasons would make their occurrence less 

 frequent in women than in men ; but this difference can 

 scarcely account for the vast disproportion, which has been 

 observed. 



Dr. Marcet's table shows that nearly one half of the cal- 

 culous patients were under fourteen years of age, and that 

 these children were only from the poor classes ; a strong 

 argument in favor of the influence of diet in promoting such 

 diseases. That the diet of an animal has an important ef- 

 fect upon the disposition to produce particular calculi may 

 be inferred from what is stated by Dr. Wollaston, (London 

 Med. and Phys. Jour. Vol. 25) respecting the proportion of 

 uric acid found in the excrements of different birds, which 

 had been nourished by different kinds of food. From this 

 it appears, that those which consumed the most animal mat- 

 ter, furnished the greatest proportion of uric acid, while the 

 herbiverous animals exhibited an inconsiderable quantity. 



To the supposed influence of diet it may be objected that 

 persons, sedentary from their occupations or from their be- 

 ing confined by wounds, &,c. to the horizontal posture, are 

 peculiarly liable to urinary calculi : but this liability may 

 probably be attributed to the following causes. 1. Such 

 persons are subject to indigestion, whatever may be their 

 diet, and then the acid is found too abundantly. 2. Finding 

 that their situation makes vegetable food peculiarly indi- 

 gestible and productive of inconvenience, they may resort 

 chiefly to animal, which is far more productive of the acids. 



