H 7 
Mr. Brande's Paper on Calculi. 
sounded and a stone was found in his bladder. I put him 
on a course of alkaline medicines, and he voided a small com- 
pact calculus, composed of uric acid, and evidently formed in 
the kidney. He was desired to persist in the use of the medi- 
cines, which he did at intervals for four or five years, suffer- 
ing occasionally in a slight degree, but he did not pass any 
more calculi. He died at the age of seventy-five. On examin- 
ing the bladder, its whole cavity, (the capacity of which 
was equal to a pint measure ) was completely filled with soft, 
light, spongy calculi, three hundred and fifty in number, 
and of different sizes, from that of a walnut to a small pea. 
They were composed of a mixture of uric acid in powder, the 
phosphates, and animal mucus ; and differed so much from 
the calculus voided soon after the patient began the use of 
alkalies, that they appear to have been formed after that period 
in the manner mentioned by Mr. W. Brande. 
A gentleman, who was found to have a stone in his blad- 
der, was persuaded that it was so small that it might be dis- 
solved, and with this view he took the fossil alkali, both in 
its caustic and mild state, for about three months ; but at the 
end of that period the symptoms were encreased, and he 
submitted to have it extracted by an operation. On ex- 
aminining the calculus after it was extracted, the external 
part, for the thickness of ~ of an inch, was entirely com- 
posed of triple phosphate, in a state of perfect spiculated 
crystals, so as to present a very rough irritating surface to 
the internal membrane of the bladder, while the inner parts 
of the calculus were made up of a mixture of uric acid and 
phosphates, so that the alkali had prevented the formation 
