522 
URINARY CALCULI IN CATTLE. 
says : U A metallic aspect belongs to many other bodies which 
do not contain metals the colour and brilliancy of which they 
possess, and it is to be observed that this curious phenomenon 
undoubtedly manifests itself in vegetables as well as in 
minerals and animals.” 
In Alessandrini’s museum there are various collections of 
these singular calculi, and it appears they never occur 
solitary, and are mostly small. Perhaps the most interesting 
specimens, because some of the largest, are preserved at No. 
913. They were found in the kidney of a cow which was 
fat and healthy. They are of various sizes, and the w T eight 
of the largest is an ounce and a half. One of the largest 
sawn in two presents the stratiform structure, and the layers 
are of a yellowish metallic lustre. These are dated 1825. 
The Ferrara collection is rich in these urinary calculi, and in 
most of the museums I have been in on the Continent have 
I seen some. 
Mazza says,* u During my stay in Tuscany, Mr. Antonio 
Lorenzani, of Pisa, favoured me with a calculus found in the 
urethra of an ox. Its form and size are those of a haricot ; 
the weight eleven grains and a half, the surface uneven, but 
smooth ; the colour auriferous, much like triturated sulphuret 
of arsenic ; its fracture lamellated, brilliant, and without 
odour. 5 ’ Mazza describes at length the chemical processes 
he went through to analyse it. 
The following is the result : 
Uric Acid gr. 1 
Carbonate of Lime 6 
Phosphate of Lime 3 
Iron 1 
Loss 
Grains 11^ 
Mazza had suspected the presence of iron, and accordingly 
obtained the Prussian blue precipitate, on adding prussic 
acid to an acidulated solution of the calculus, after having 
precipitated the lime salts. 
Furstenberg, a German veterinary surgeon, published a 
memoir in 1844, on f Calculi, and Concretions in the Bodies 
of the Domesticated Animals. 5 f At page 466, he says, 
referring to the small round renal calculi of cattle, with 
* * Corso Completo di Chirurgia Yeterinaria,’ di Yincengo Mazza, Firenze 
1842, p. 388. 
t Yon den steinen und Concrementen im Korper der Ilaussaugethiere. 
Yom Konigl. Kreis Thierarzt Furstenberg in Soldin. Mag. fur die Ge- 
sammte Thierheilkunde, Berlin, 1844, pp. 268 — 461 
