118     PURE  CARBONIC  ACID,  MINERAL  AND  LITHIA  WATER. 
ture,  but  at  boiling  heat  one  part  of  carbonate  of  lithia  dissolves 
almost  four  of  uric  acid.  In  following  up  the  above  experiment 
of  Garrod,  Mr.  S.  found  that  the  simultaneous  solution  of  car- 
bonate of  litbia  and  uric  acid  was  accompanied  by  no  effervescence, 
bicarbonate  of  lithia  being  formed.  On  adding  more  uric  acid 
gradually,  at  the  point  when  the  whole  of  the  lithia  becomes 
either  urate  or  bicarbonate,  effervescence  commences,  and  until 
this  effervescence  ceases  the  uric  acid  continues  to  dissolve.  Mr. 
S.  concludes  that  "  the  urate  of  lithia  is  more  soluble  than  the 
carbonate,  and  less  soluble  than  the  bicarbonate."  After  the 
effervescence  and  taking  up  of  the  uric  acid  ceases,  a  little  water 
added  will  clear  up  the  solution,  and  enable  it  to  take  up  still  more 
uric  acid.  He  finds  that  a  mixture  of  chloride  of  lithium  and 
carbonate  of  soda  has  the  same  solvent  power  as  the  carbonate 
of  lithia,  accounting  for  the  medicinal  action  of  natural  waters 
containing  the  lithium  as  chloride,  this  being  necessarily  decom- 
posed in  the  blood  by  the  alkalies  thereof.  He  gives  the  formulae 
of  his  "Lithia  Water"  and  "Vichy  with  Lithia,"  which  are 
prepared  with  great  care,  and  have  proved  highly  successful  in  a 
number  of  cases. 
Schultz  points  out  that  while  it  cannot  be  expected  that  lithia 
water  can  remove  calculi  which  consists  of  phosphates  and  oxalates 
instead  of  urates,  yet  that  Wohler  and  Frerichs  have  shown*, 
by  experiments  on  man  and  dog,  that  the  administration  of  urates 
causes  the  excretion  of  large  quantities  of  oxalate  of  lime  in  the 
urine.  Referring  to  the  discoveries  of  Wiederhold,  that  uric  acid 
is  excreted  by  the  lungs  and  skin,  as  well  as  the  kidneys,  he  asks 
whether  the  absence  of  diaphoresis,  often  observed  in  gouty  per- 
sons, may  not  be  connected  with  an  accumulation  of  uric  acid. 
Also,  that  the  fact  stated  by  Lehmann,  that  in  all  fevers  the 
proportion  of  uric  acid  in  the  urine  always  increases,  suggests 
an  important  extension  of  the  usefulness  of  lithia  waters.  The 
symptoms  observed  as  following  the  use  of  Schultz  &  Warker's 
lithia  waters  agree  closely  with  those  described  by  Ruef  above, 
namely,  an  increased  pain  in  the  affected  parts  at  first,  and  a 
subsequent  amelioration  of  the  disease.  This  pain  furnishes  a 
valuable  index  of  the  progress  of  the  cure. 
*  Ann.  der  Chem.  nnd  Pharm.,  65,  p.  385. 
