142 Mr. W. Branded Observations on the Effects 
times a day in water, 'but this operating too powerfully upon 
the bowels, the same quantity of magnesia was taken twice a 
day only, with an addition of five drops of laudanum to each 
dose. 
This plan was pursued without intermission for three weeks, 
and he received considerable benefit, as far as concern ed the 
state of the stomach, and pain in the region of the kidney. 
The urine, which was examined once a week, was also, on 
the whole improved, but it occasionally deposited a very 
copious sediment, consisting of uric acid, with a variable pro- 
portion of mucous secretion. 
After a further continuance of the use of the magnesia for 
three weeks, the urine was often much loaded with uric acid, 
and mucus, but these appearances, which before the use of 
the magnesia were constant, are now only occasional, so that 
the disposition to form a redundant quantity of uric acid, is 
much diminished : it is also deserving of remark, that there 
has not been the slightest symptom of gout from the time of 
the last attack, which is more than a year back, a longer in- 
terval of ease, than this patient has experienced for the last 
six years. 
He has now omitted the regular use of the magnesia, but 
on perceiving any unpleasant sensation in the stomach, he 
returns to it for a week or ten days, and then again leaves 
it off. 
From the preceding cases it appears, that the effects of 
magnesia taken into the stomach, are in many respects dif- 
ferent from those produced by the alkalies, in those patients 
in whom there is a disposition to form a superabundant quan- 
tity of uric acid. 
