26 Mr. Children on some alvine concretions 
the time note down all the particulars of the case; but on 
referring to the prescriptions, he says that it does not appear 
that Chambers ever took the smallest quantity of calcined 
magnesia or its carbonate, during the whole of his atten- 
dance. He had frequent doses of sulphate of magnesia, 
castor oil, and rhubarb; and during the latter period of his 
illness opium was often administered. Chambers’s usual 
diet was milk porridge twice a day, viz. at breakfast and 
supper ; the milk thickened with oatmeal His dinner com- 
monly consisted of meat and potatoes ; he rarely took any 
other kind of vegetable, and always ate oat cake at his dinner. 
In the afternoon he ate oat bread, and cheese, and drank 
beer ; so that he never took a single repast without oatmeal 
in some shape or other. During his illness he occasionally had 
oatmeal gruel, and sometimes a little beef or mutton broth, 
into which it is usual in Lancashire to throw, whilst preparing 
it, a spoonful or two of oatmeal. He was also requested at 
this period, to live a good deal on milk and vegetables. 
Mr. Coultate adds, in his letter to Mr. Thomson, that 
during the time he acted as assistant to Mr. Barlow of 
Blackburn, a case similar to that of Chambers’s came 
under his care. The patient was a girl about fourteen years 
of age. The concretion had made its way down to the 
rectum, and was extracted by the forceps. It was about the 
size of a hen’s egg, but appeared of a firmer texture, and 
felt heavier than those taken from Chambers. The nucleus 
of this calculus was also a plum stone. The girl recovered ; 
and Mr. Coultate frequently saw her afterwards. 
Another case also occurred in the course of Mr. Barlow’s 
practice in which eight similar concretions (the two largest 
