VIII. On the Dissolution of Urinary Calculi in dilute Saline Fluids, at the Temperature 
of the Body, hy the aid of Electricity. 
By Henry Bence Jones, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to St. George's Hospital. 
Received October 12, — Read December 16, 1852. 
In the year 1842 I published a statement of some of the attempts which had been 
made to dissolve urinary calculi. I did not then know that MM. Prevost and Dumas 
had made any researches on this subject. Some time afterwards I was told that they 
had used electricity, but I could not obtain the reference to their original paper ; as 
no practical use was made of their experiments, I did not search for the record of 
them until after my own experiments were completed. 
In 1845 I first devised the investigation which from circumstances I did not com- 
mence until 1848, when I made some experiments on the solution of uric acid 
calculi. 
It appeared to me not unlikely that when a solution of nitrate of potassa was made 
to divide into potassa and nitric acid by means of electricity, if a piece of uric acid 
were held between the electrodes of the galvanic battery, then the potassa at the 
negative electrode and the nitric acid at the positive electrode would both act on the 
calculus. 
Thus I expected that the fluid about the negative electrode would dissolve the 
uric acid, whilst the fluid about the positive electrode would decompose the uric 
acid. I considered that no great excess of acid or alkali would result, because after 
passing round the calculus I expected they would recombine, re-forming a neutral 
solution. 
The battery used consisted of six pairs of Grove’s plates. The action was con- 
tinued about four hours. There was an effect produced on the uric acid at the 
negative pole, but no very decided result was obtained. 
A second experiment gave so little encouragement that for the time the experi- 
ments were discontinued. 
In the year 1851 I proposed again trying, under the same circumstances, the effect 
of nitre on uric acid, of sulphate of potash on oxalate of lime, and of lactate of soda 
on phosphatic calculi. I was unable to make any experiments untilJuly 1852, when, 
through the kindness of Dr. Faraday, I was allowed to have the use of the batteries 
at the Royal Institution, and I had the valuable assistance of Mr. Anderson, by which 
the perfect action of these batteries was ensured. 
