An essay on the lithontriptic virtues of the gastric liquor / by John Syng Dorsey.

  • Dorsey, John Syng, 1783-1818.
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the lithontriptic virtues of the gastric liquor / by John Syng Dorsey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    briefly mention the manner in which 1 usually procu- red it. The butchers were requested not to allow the ani- mals any food for 24 hours before they were killed; this caution was, I believe, adhered to, but in every case where the stomach was opened, some aliment was found in it....generally corn, grass, straw, &c. The contents of the stomach strained through a cloth and afterwards carefully filtered through paper, yielded the liquor in a tolerable state of purity. I ne- ver could detect acid in it by the taste, or its effects on litmus....nor is there any cause to believe it ever present. The taste of the fluid was generally between saltish and bitter, its odor so peculiar and unpleasant as not readily to be mistaken for any other. It was commonly void of colour. Having repeated the experiments of dissolving the stone, so frequently as to convince myself I had made no hasty conclusions, nor any which were not attested by several of my friends; the next point to be ascer- tained was, whether the bladder would bear the in- jection of the fluid. A patient in the Pennsylvania hospital, Mr. John Shaw, agreed to submit to the operation of injection. The managers and physicians of that highly useful and benevolent institution, obligingly permitted the trial to be made. EXPERIMENT. A silver catheter was introduced into the bladder and to its external extremity was adapted a hog's