TO CALCULOUS DISEASES. 
425 
alike ; or rather, that those of the country population have somewhat pre- 
ponderated ; for while Aberdeen has afforded to the amount of one case for 
44,000 inhabitants, the proportion of Aberdeenshire alone, without any obvious 
cause for such difference, has been one for 40,000 inhabitants. 
In Ireland, the great preponderance of calculous cases originating in towns, 
is likewise strongly marked ; for in Dublin, to judge from the returns of the 
county hospital for the last 12 years, two thirds of the cases, or 4 per annum, 
seem to be furnished by that city, which is about one half of the number 
afforded by the whole remaining part of Ireland, and is at the rate of one for 
every 45,000 inhabitants. In Cork likewise, the proportions are much less 
than those of Dublin, being about one for 160,000 inhabitants ; yet this infinitely 
exceeds the usual product, either of the county of Cork, or of Ireland gene- 
rally. 
Where the circumstances which have a tendency to produce calculous dis- 
eases, are so very obscure, so difficultly traceable, and so full of anomalies, I 
have thought it useful to notice the local situations which are remarkable 
either for the frequency or unfrequency of such maladies, because the atten- 
tion of observers may thus be directed to analogies, or discrepancies, which 
may not before have been sufficiently the subject of remark. That there are 
certain affections of the digestive organs which favour the occurrence of cal- 
culous complaints, is very generally admitted ; and that these affections are 
likewise exceedingly prevalent in towns, and more especially among persons 
who practise sedentary occupations, is likewise well known. But while 
dyspeptic complaints are so common, that they form a very large share of the 
diseases which present themselves in the medical charities, both of London 
and the country, it still remains a problem, to what particular circumstances 
of constitution or habit, the origin of stone is to be attributed, which, in com- 
parison of other chronic maladies, is so rare ; and what are the peculiarities 
which render some dyspeptics liable to the complaint, and thousands of others 
exempt from it. 
That there is a certain connection between calculous tendency, and some 
prevailing diathesis of towns, is supported by the greater frequency of stone in 
town, than country populations ; and I was inclined to consider it not improba- 
ble, that this diathesis might be the scrophulous, both from mesenteric diseases 
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