Report made to the Institute of France, on the 22d of March, 1824 / by Baron Percy and Chev. Chaussier on a memoir presented by M. Civiale, M.D., of the faculty of Paris, entitled A new method of destroying the stone in the bladder without the operation of lithotomy ; translated from the French by R. La Roche.

  • Percy, Pierre-François, baron, 1754-1825.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report made to the Institute of France, on the 22d of March, 1824 / by Baron Percy and Chev. Chaussier on a memoir presented by M. Civiale, M.D., of the faculty of Paris, entitled A new method of destroying the stone in the bladder without the operation of lithotomy ; translated from the French by R. La Roche. 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.)

    24/42
    portions for analysis, and consequently for deter- mining the proper reagent ? It was precisely in the midst of these meditations, that the project of breaking the stone,—of grinding, and destroying it mechanically, instead of attempting to decom- pose it by chemical agents, naturally suggested itself to the mind of Mr. Civiale, which it now en- tirely engrossed. In this supposition, it only re- mained for him to invent the mechanical means proper to accomplish an object incomparably more rational and practicable than the former. But it was first necessary to mature and arrange ideas, which he thought entirely his own; whilst views, if not similar, at least analogous, were con- tained as early as 1813 in a German medical Ga- zette of Saltzburg, even of the existence of which he was necessarily ignorant. It was in this paper that, to his great astonishr ment, he discovered that the original idea of his lithontriptic s) stem, belonged to the same physi- cian who had likewise anticipated, by eleven years, the interesting experiments of Messrs. Prevost and Dumas. It was sufficient for him to cast his eyes on the design and explanation of the instruments, though rude and imaginary, of Mr. Gruithuisen, to assume the second rank after him, although on his part he had likewise discovered all, and without borrowing any thing from another. But if Mr. Civiale contents himself modestly with the second place relative to time, of the vague, incoherent, though ingenious plan of the Bavarian physician,