Experiments and observations tending to show the composition and properties of urinary concretions / by George Pearson.

  • Pearson, George, 1751-1828.
Date:
[1798?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments and observations tending to show the composition and properties of urinary concretions / by George Pearson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The experiments of the alchemists also made it appear, that earth was only a part of the matter of concretions. It was probably the observation of the deposition and crystallization of saline bodies, which suggested the notion of urinary calculi being of the nature of tartar. Such was the opinion of Basil Valentine, and after him of Hochener, better known by the name of Paracelsus ; but, whether the latter adopted the de- nomination Duelech from its import, or from caprice, has not been explained. Van Helmont, a century after his proto- type Paracelsus, being struck with the experiment in which he discovered the concretion' of salts in distilled urine by al- cohol, was led to depart from his adored master’s opinion, with respect to the nature of calculi; although he acknow- ledges the merit of Paracelsus, in having discovered the sol- vent hudusy (a calcareous stone also called Septarium,) which Van Helmont says is preferable to alkaline lixivium. He also says, that when the archeus spirit of urine meets with a vola- tile earthy spirit, and does not act in a due manner, a con- cretion will be formed; but, in a healthy state, although all urine contains the matter of urinary calculi, no concretion can take place, because the archeus, or vital power of the bladder, counteracts its formation. As to the kind of earth composing calculi, the only distinc- tion of earths, till about the last half century, was into absor- bent and non-absorbent; but, since the absorbent earths were distinguished into calcareous, magnesia, and alumine or clay, the calcareous was considered to be the earth of urinary con- cretions ; apparently however for no other reason but its ob- vious properties, and its extensive diffusion through the whole animal kingdom.