TENDENCY TO CALCULOUS DISEASES. 
57 
South Greenhoe ; which proportions have been pretty much preserved, during 
every part of the period to which the records of the establishment extend. 
It is to be observed, however, that there are some singular anomalies on this 
subject ; for in a few instances it has happened, that a particular hundred has 
been remarkably free from the disease, and that the contiguous one has afforded 
rather an unusual number of examples of it. 
There has been no material alteration in the number of cases which have 
occurred, in a similar space of time, during the different periods since the esta- 
blishment of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital; and hence, as the population 
of the county has augmented nearly a third during that period, the proportion 
of calculous cases may be considered as having diminished much in the same 
ratio. 
With regard to the proportion in which calculous cases occur in other parts 
of the kingdom, the researches of Dr. Dobson*, and afterwards of Dr. Marcet-|', 
and Mr. Smith of Bristol;}:, have communicated the principal information 
which we possess upon the subject : but it is exceedingly difficult, from the 
want of efficient registers, to procure such data, as can connect the occurrence 
of a certain number of cases, with a certain known population. Mr. Smith’s 
calculation, of the occurrence of about 4 7 operations for calculus annually in the 
hospitals of the metropolis, I believe to be pretty nearly the truth ; and I have 
found from the registers of the London Hospital, (to which I was many years 
physician,) that in that establishment, about two thirds of the calculous cases 
have been furnished by the metropolis, and one third by the country. Taking 
the same proportions as applying to the other hospitals of the metropolis, 
I am therefore disposed to refer 31 of the 47 cases, to the population of the 
metropolis, amounting to rather more than 1,200,000 inhabitants; and 16 to 
about the same number living in counties adjacent to the metropolis, which 
possess no county hospitals, or have had them too recently established to affect 
* Medical Commentaries, &c. with Observations on the Disposition to the Stone in the Cyder 
Countries, compared with some other Parts of England. 
f Essay on the Chemical History and Medical Treatment of Calculous Disorders. 
% A Statistical Inquiry into the Frequency of Stone in the Bladder in Great Britain and Ireland. 
Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. xi. p. 7 . 
MDCCCXXIX. 
I 
