An Extract of a Letter, Written by Dr. Nathan. Fairfax to the Publisher, about a Bullet Voided by Urine

An Extract Of a Letter, written by Dr. Nathan, Fairfax to the Publisher, about a Bullet voided by Urine. Sir, I sent a while since by Mr. A. C. to Mr. B. for your self a certain Leaden-Bullet, voided by a Woman at the passage of Urine, the circumstances relating to which I design'd to commit presently after to a Letter, but was diverted from it till now. The rude history of it you may please to take as follows. G. Eliot of Mendlesham in Suffolk, a pale, middle-ag'd, full-bo- died woman, sorely afflicted for some yeares with a torment of the Bowels, was prevailed with by a Neighbour, who had suffer'd much in the like case, to swallow two fit Bullets: whereupon she found (as he had done before her) present ease; but after- wards her pains return'd and increas'd, and she having many con- flicts for about 15 years, then apply'd herself to my Apothecary, Mr. Gibson of Stow-market, who administered to her in the fit a dose of Lady Hollands Powder, which she took in Posset-drink in the Morning, was mov'd gently by it in the after-noon, spent that night in torture of body with Vomitings, and next morning, during the use of the Chamber-pot, together with the Urine there came that from her, which giving a twang against the side of the Vessel, surprized her with wonder, what it should be; and the Urine being poured off warily, there was left in it a heavy and (to appearance) gravelly Stone, of a colour between yel- low and red, near as big as on's Thumbs-ends (as she confi- dently asserts to me;) but making use of an Hammer, and knocking off the outer parts of its crust, they came at a Bul- let incloed in it, of a kind of Brazen colour on the out-side; but cutting a little with a Knife, it proved Lead within: which being discover'd could easily be accounted for. Asking her, if no in- quiry had been made of such a Bullets comming from her be- fore, she told me that some dayes after she took them, the Stools had been slightly examin'd, but finding neither, they gave over search. She being further ask'd about the bigness of the Bullet? She told me, it was apparently bigger when she took it, than when she voyded it. The state of her Body in re- ference to the Stone being inquired into, she said, that she had, before and since that befell her, been a voyder of abundance of red Gravel, and particularly, about three yeares after she took them, she voided a considerable reddish stone. When I ask'd her about the manner of affecting her Body at the comming forth; she answer'd, 'Twas much like a common fit of the Stone, onely it held her longer (lasting some weeks) bow'd her sadly forward, (as a Stone often does in the Ureters,) provok'd to Vomitings, and particularly she felt it crowd lower and lower from the Kidney to the Bladder, in the left Ureter. Asking her farther, Wether she was sure, it came by the passage of urine, and not by Siege? She assur'd me, she was not mistaken in that. And indeed the gravelly Coat, which the Bullet hath, shews sufficiently, whereabout 'twas lodg'd. Inquiring also, Whether the other Bullet was come from her? She said no; for ought she knew, 'twas still in her body. And as to her state since this evacuation, she faith, that she hath had ever since Stone-collick-pains, but none in so high a degree, as before. This is the plain relation of the matter of Fact. The Maine use, I would make of the Instance (if it be worth mentioning) is to strengthen a conjecture, I have had a long time, of some other passage from the Stomack to the Bladder, besides what Anatomists have hitherto given accounts of. For that this Bullet never came at the Ureters through the Veines, Arteries, Nerves, Lympheducts (the onely vessels that can be charg'd with it) is, I think, beyond dispute. If it shall be said, that Nature, when put to shifts, finds out strange conveyances to rid the Body of what is extraneous and offensive to it, I readily grant it, because many instances are known, making that good; yet I think it not so pertinently urg'd, for as much as some other Instances seem to side with it, which cannot be taken off by the same evasion; viz. Many do find, that drinking 4 or 5 Glasses of Rheum (for instance,) within less than a quarter of an hour they shall have a strong list to make Water, especially if the Body hath been agitated. Now that it should pass through the Lacteals, Veins, Heart, and Arteries, and be strain'd from the Blood in so short a time, is to me scarce conceivable. But surely this shorter passage (wherever 'tis) is as natural as that, by which it should have gone, had it staid longer in the Body: Body: Not to say, how little it savors of the rankness of the Kidneys, and how much it resembles that, which it was, before 'twas taken into the Body. And methinks, the conveyance of the Milk into the breast hath much affinity with this of the Urine into the Bladder; the sudden pressing whereof into the Papps after the Nurse's drinking ordinary Milk could no more be explained by the ordinary doctrine of Circulation, than this of the urine into the Bladder, till the shorter cut was hit upon by the Ductus thoracici; though ordinarily it may be stray'd in from the Arteries, as the Serum also in the Kidneys; only in a Milk-cloud Nature finds some other Channel there, as here in a Water-cloud. Lastly, Sometimes things are shed forth at the Nipples, almost as much surprizing as this, we have spoken of, at the Neck of the Bladder. But I am perhaps too prolix in my reflexions, of which I desire you to believe I have as mean thoughts, as the Candidest of Readers shall. I am, &c. Wooabridge, sept. 18. 1668. II. Joh. Hevelii COMETOGRAPHIA. Printed at Danzig A. 1668. in large Folio. In this curious and learned Volume the Illustrious Author hath with great industry endeavoured to explain the whole Nature of Comets, their Place, Parallaxes, Distances from the Earth, Beginning and End, the several Appearances of their Heads and Trayns, together with their admirable motion; And all this by means of one constant and fit Hypothesis, by which he judgeth that all the Phænomena and Questions touching Comets, hitherto known, may be rationally and conveniently explained and demonstrated: All illustrated by 38 Schemes in Folio, engraven by the Author himself; as the whole Book hath been Printed at his own charges. To which is added both a particular explication of the Comets, which appear'd A. 1652, 1661, 1664, 1665; and an History of all the Comets, recorded by Historians, Philosophers and Astronomers from the Noachical Deluge unto this day, enriched with the Authors Notes and Animadversions, and a general Table, representing, as it were, in one view, the most remarkable particulars observed in all Comets, viz. concerning