On the preventive treatment of calculous disease and the use of solvent remedies / by Sir Henry Thompson.

Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the preventive treatment of calculous disease and the use of solvent remedies / by Sir Henry Thompson. 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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    have merely made his enemy disappear; he is by no means rid of its presence, for you have not •checked the acid formation. The uric acid is there, and probably in quantity as much as ever ; for the uric acid and urates are soluble in alkali, and you have only rendered them invisible. You really have the same condition as that described in the 'well- known fable of the ostrich, which is said to put its head into the bush when pursued by hunters, and, no longer seeing them, to believe itself secure. Just such is the security of the patient with uric acid who trusts solely to alkalies or to Vichy water. His surplus deposits have become unrecognisable by vision; nothing more. I do not go so far as to say the alkalies have been absolutely unserviceable as regards his constitutional state, but they will not improve it to any great extent; and when he leaves them off the acid shows itself again. And further, I believe there is reason to conclude that large quantities of alkali, habitually taken, exercise an undesirable influence, to say the least. Diuretics have been employed on much the same principle, and may be regarded as no better than the alkalies. In those cases which are treated with such agents as nitrate or acetate of potash,