78 
EFFECTS OF MAGNESIA ON URIC ACID. 
I 
Case. 
theie cases was also first suggested by the same able chemist, | 
but although his valuable observations have been before the 
public for nearly tit teen years, I am not aware that any experi- 
ments have been made to ascertain what acids are best calcu- 
lated to produce the desired effect, or to illustrate their mode 
of action. 
Since ray former communication, I have lost no opportunity 
of attending to this important subject, and hope that the con- 
clusions, suggested by the following cases, will be deemed 
salislaclory, and that their application in practice may lead to 
useful results. 
s 
Case 1 . A gentleman, fifty years of age, who about ten 
years before had undergone the operation for the stone*, was 
attacked on the 14th January, 1810, with violent pain in 
the right kidney and ureter, which lasted two days ; on the 
17 th, these symptoms subsided, and were followed by those of | 
stone in the bladder, which continued for some days, and 
Pi. 
although he had taken abundance of barley water, and similar ll 
diluents, the stone shewed no disposition to pass. On account | 
of his former sufferings, this circumstance rendered him ex- |i 
i, 
tremely uneasy, and on the evening of the 21 st, he suffered IL 
several severe paroxysms of pain, on attempting to make water. I 
Under these circumstances, he was desired to take a purge, 
composed of two ounces of infusion of senna, two drachms of 
tincture of senna, and twenty grains of powdered jalap.-j- In 
three hours this began to take powerful effect, and during the 
violence of the operation, he was so fortunate as to void the 
calculus with his urine. It weighed eight grains. On the 28lh, 
• The .>itone extracted consisted of a nucleus of uric acid, about the 
size of a pea, incrustcd with a mixture of the phospliates. It was 
broken during the operation, but appeared to have been of the size of 
a pigeon’s egg. 
f I recommended this treatment in consequence of having heard 
Sir Everard Home state a case, in his .Surgical Lectures, of a gentle- 
man who suffered a bougie to pass so far into the urethra, that it could 
not be removed by any instrument. During the operation of a purge 
it was expelled with considerable force. 
he 
