On Gravel, calculus & gout : chiefly an application of Professor Liebig's physiology to the prevention and cure of these diseases / by H. Bence Jones.

Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On Gravel, calculus & gout : chiefly an application of Professor Liebig's physiology to the prevention and cure of these diseases / by H. Bence Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    nitric acid with a little water, and raising the tem- perature to 130 F., no action ensued ; but if a small quantity of protosalt of manganese was added, the decomposition immediately commenced. The nitric acid was converted into nitrous acid, whilst the oxalic acid passes into carbonic acid. Oxalic acid differs from oxalate of lime, and nitric acid with a little water could not be borne in the bladder ; but I have mentioned this only to shew that new means of effecting chemical changes may be discovered, and some of these may enable us to change the oxalic acid into a substance which would be as easily removed as carbonate of lime. With regard to uric acid, its peculiar property of undergoing changes is so remarkable, that most pro- bably the means of effecting a change in such cal- culi when in the bladder will be first discovered. At present, then, but little can be effected by in- jection in calculous cases, excepting where there is sufficient evidence that the calculus consists of phosphates, of cystin, or of carbonate of lime. The case recorded by Sir B. Brodie and that by M. Pelouze put the question of the phosphates beyond all doubt, whilst the far greater solubility of cystin or carbonate of lime in the same menstruum renders success with such calculi even more certain. If, then, after a calculus has been once caught and crushed (which is neither painful nor dan- gerous, the operation usually becoming so from fre- quent repetition), the pieces which are passed are