A disquisition of the stone and gravel, together with strictures on the gout, when combined with those disorders; pointing out a safe and efficacious solvent for reducing the stone, and correcting the calculous diathesis in the habit / by S. Perry.

  • Perry, S. (Sampson), 1747-1823.
Date:
1815
    less at, and after dinner, than five or six glasses: my supper, if auy, has always been according to your direction. I took the Solvent pretty constantly half a year, and began to bear travelling better, but I could not ride a horse except in a walk. The travelling up and down to Cornwall in a carriage became very easy, and the motion of a carriage over the London pavement was not troublesome. I, at length, rode out with the harriers, and often trotted, without making any bloody wa- ter (but did not venture to gallop), and lean walk many miles in a day without the uneasy sensations I formerly felt. In short, though I am at times sensible that there is a nucleus still in the bladder, yef I trust it is not large, as I feel no sensa- tion in jumping down, nor any frequent urgings to make water; on the contrary, I often go four or five hours without evacua- tion, and am seldom disturbed in the night. I mean to go on again with the Solvent, and hope to obtain a total With respect to the effect of the Solvent on the constitution in general, l am clear, as to myself, that it has been very bene- ficial ; for though, when I began to take it, or before I felt any sensations of the stone, I was, at times, of a very bilious habit, had frequent hcad-achs, and strong symptoms of the gout (which my father fell a martyr to), yet I do not remember, for twenty years past, to have been so free from all the above Complaints as I have been since taking your medicine, nor to have enjoyed a better state of health, except with regard to the complaint for which I took it. I have enjoyed a constant good appetite, and more particularly so the days I take the Solvent. My body has always been open, as it always was, constitution- ally ; and I never have had the least nausea at the stomach, or disinclination to any kind of food So far I can speak >virh cer- tainty as to what I have experienced, and I mean to pCrscverfe, in hopes the effect will be ns certain in relieving me wholly from a complaint, which, though very tolerable at present, is not agreeable in prospective. regularly relief. I am, Sir, &c. John Call. There remains nqthing further to add, but that Sir John Call, in a few months after, evacuated three small nuclei of Stones, and remained so perfectly free from the disorder as to take upon himself the office of Surveyor of His Majesty's Fo- rests and 1 iinher ; and died at. the end of live years (upwards of seventy years of ago), of a disease in no degree allied to the stone.
    CASE XV. The Case of Joseph Bei.l, Esq. Surgeon, at Wycombe, Bucks, as drawn up by himself and inclosed in the following Letter ; Dear Sir, Inclosed I send you a simple narrative of facts, as they occur to iny recollection: you will be so obliging, if you think it may be of use to the world, to put it in proper form ; and I assure you that 1 shall at all times be ready to give the most ample satisfaction to every one who may be induced to apply to me on the subject, as I feel it a duty I owe to the pub- lic so to do. The obligation I am under to you for your atten- tion to me, during the course of the Solvent’s trial, will never be effaced from my memory. The relief I have experienced will always incline me to keep a bottle or two in the house, for which reason I beg the favour of you to send me two before you go to Paris:—till your return therefrom, permit me to sub- scribe myself, Your obliged and devoted humble servant, Joseph Bell. ** On my roafi to Kingston-upon-Thames, I wa3 seized with a severe fit of pain in my left kidney ; I had been, for four years back, too well and too repeatedly acquainted with the kind of pain to mistake that which I then suffered; however, as I had , only five or six miles to ride, I pursued my journey, at the end of which, on getting off iny horse and calling for a chamber- pot, I passed a very considerable quantity of bloody water: my pain, by this time, was so considerably increased, that I was under the necessity, though at an inn, of having recourse to the warm hath and laudanum, of which I took between eighty and one hundred drops. The relief I experienced was very litde m proportion to the quantity of opium I took, and my night was a night of torture. By the persuasion of a friend who was with me, I the next day returned gently home, in a chaise. Having taken the Solvent for h month previous to this fit, my friends, and Mr. Rose, a very eminent surgeon of this town, ad- vised me to send tor you : the state in which you found me I need not describe; sutfice it to say, that from the time of my being taken ill, to the evening on which I apprehend the stone passed from the kidney- into the bladder (being a space of nearly tlirce weeks;, tin pain 1 underwent is beyond description. Dr. Bates, ait cmiiiuu*physiciau in this neighbourhood, and Dr. Par- I
    son, professor of anatomy in Oxford, were likewise called in to my assistance, particularly as you were at such a distance from me. The methods used during the fits of pain you are perfectly ac- quainted with; I shall therefore content myself with informing you, that as soon as the stone had passed, I again, by the ad- vice of those attending me, had recourse to the Solvent; and from persisting strenuously in the use of it for twelve months, I have the greatest reason to flatter myself that it has rendered me every benefit I could possibly hope or expect, without feel- ing any one ill effect from persisting so long in its use. For the first two or three months, during the taking of the Solvent, I passed a considerable quantity of large rough gravel, attended, at times, with pain; when, for three or four months more, I passed a pretty large quantity of very fine sand; since which time I have hardly experienced a twinge, or passed a particle, at least in comparison to what I had suffered or what had passed before, and am now, thank God, pretty well able to go through the fatigues of my profession.’' Remarks on the above Case. Upon being desired, by express, to attend Mr. Bell, I got into a chaise, and reached his house about two o’clock the next morning, when I found him in a high fever, in the most excru- ciating pain, and, at times, delirious; his vomitings, I learned, had been violent, and his urine was bloody to the highest degree. I imrnediately ordered copious bleeding, but was informed that attempts had been fruitlessly made with the lancet, and, as I apprehended his life in some danger, 1 determined to renew the attempt myself, and succeeded, by which I drew off eighteen or twenty ounces of blood. His fever now subsided, and he became sensible, so as to describe his feelings: bal- saxnics and anodynes were alternately given him, and 1 had the satisfaction to leave him in a fair way of recovery. The piece ot stone soon after passed, and he took the Solvent, without interruption, till hopes were entertained that nothing remained behind. It may be proper to add, that the stone had all the signs of being operated upon by the Solvent, by reason of its specific lightness, since a calculus of the same dimensions and figure, not so operated upon, Vrcighs nearly three times atf much, viz. twenty-five grains, whereas his owu weighed but nine grains.
    CASE XVI. Tiic following very important Instance of the Efficacy and Safety of ADAMS’S SPECIIIC SOLVENT, was lately communicated by a worthy Clergyman. The Case of Mr. William IIarplr, at the Right Honour- able Lord Robert litrtit's. • Mr. IIarplr bad been afflicted with the stone many years, to that degree, as rendered bis life, at last, extremely burden- some, and made him incapable of using exercise, or even any motion, without great pain, the stone having acquired such a weight, that he could sensibly feel it in his bladder upon every sudden movement, and, particularly, when he turned himself in his bed. It is not possible to describe all the medicines he had been recommended to, and which be had taken, without relief. lie was at last advised to take the Solvent, which he did to the quantity of three bottles before he perceived any altera- tion ; but, in the fourth or fifth, he was so much easier as to be able to walk about. He also began to discharge gravel and sand; and, by the time he had taken as much more, the stone was so far operated upon, that it came away in concave pieces, like broken nut-shells. Previous to bis taking the Sol- vent, he had been urged to make water eight or ten times in an hour, and with such exquisite torture, that his cries were heard at a very considerable distance ; but, by this time, he could retain his water for three or four hours, and make it with but slight pain. The stone continued to be voided, some- times in the form of powder, at other times in those shell-like pieces before described ; till, at length, a round piece (supposed to be the nucleus) passed the urethra; and, Irom this time, lie dated his perfect cure, lor he could now ride .on horseback sixty miles' in a day, without the least inconvenience. Lord Robert, from his great humanity, took infinite pains to make known the efficacy of the Solvent, for the benefit of the af- flicted in similar cases. Observations on the foregoing Case, by the Clergyman. The peculiar form of the discharge of the stone, in the aforesaid cure, is a greater encomium on the Solvent than any thing that can be said; as it plainly shews it does not act by a forcing or irritating quality on the vessels themselves, but from a power of dispossessing the stone ot its pimciplcs ot cohesion.
    CASE XVII. Tun. following Cure presents not only indubitable Evidence of the solvent Power of this Medicine in the Stone and Gra- vel, but also its happy Effects in removing the Disposition of the Habit to calculous Concretions, an Advantage which even chirurgical Operation caunot secure to the Patient. The Case of Mr. J. Robertsiiaw. Mr. J. Robertshaw, a non-commissioned officer in 'the Royal Regiment of Horse-Guards Blue (and in General Blath- vrayt’s troop), was, for many years, tormented with fits of the gravel, which, at length, became stone, rendering him incapa- ble of doing his duty. The accumulation was so rapid and alarming, that he kept his bed for six weeks, being unable, all that time, to stand upright but with the greatest agony. At this period he was reported, by the regimental surgeon, to have a confirmed stone, and to be in great danger. General Blachwayt's servant was thereupon despatched for some Solvent, which, by the time Mr. llobertshaw had taken three weeks, gave hint some relief; in six or seven more lie began to eva- cuate quantities of stone and clayey matter. The excruciating pains which bad kept him awake for nights together, abated, and symptoms threatening an ulcer-disappeared. By this happy change, Mr. Robertshaw could walk about, and, with further continuance of the Solvent, he ventured to mount his horse, passing stone and sand in prodigious quantities daily, till he grew as well as ever he was in his life, and con- tinued perfectly well, doing duty with the regiment, to the sur- prise of every one who knew his case; his cure being consider- ed as one of the most astonishing instances of the power of medicine. His Grace the late Duke of Richmond, and Colonel Tuffnel, shewed great regard to the medicine and its proprietor on occa- sion of the above cure. CASE XVIII. Mrs. Mili.eb, of No. 23, Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, was many years troubled with a gravelly complaint, hut, at length, it became the stone, with all its dire concomitants. She tried soap, lime-water, alkalis, and fixed air, to no purpose ; for while the disease got no better, she grew weaker and