An Abstract of a Treatise of the Calculus Humanus in Answer to Several Queries Proposed by Sir John Hoskins; By the Learned and Ingenious Fred. Slare M. D. and Fellow of the Royal Society

An Abstract of a Treatise of the Calculus Humanus in answer to several Queries proposed by Sir John Hoskins; by the Learned and Ingenious Fred. Slare M.D. and fellow of the Royal Society. It is generally observed by those that have been subject to the Stone of the Bladder, that pains in the Kidneys were antecedent, which intimates the foundation was first laid there, and afterwards by the Ureters and a Gust of Urine conveyed into the Bladder. The manner of its growth in the Bladder is obvious, the Urine (by some called Lotium) being too highly satiated or impregnated with a ponderous matter (which we here design to examine) precipitates the same at certain times upon the mention'd Basis and also on the inward Superficies or Coat of the Bladder, which upon a Relaxation of their distended Fibre, do so strictly embrace that praeternatural substance it finds there, as to overlay it or cloath it with whatever Sediment subsided there. That the Urine only at some Intervals is disposed to let fall this matter, seems probable from this observation that the Concrete consists of several Spherical Superficies, or round Incrustations, which like so many distinct Shells may be parted from each other. Moreover these Incrustations are observed to be very unequal, some much thicker than the other: An argument that the Urine continued much longer disposed to depose this Calculous lous matter at one time than at another: or else that it was much more satiated or abounded with this ponderous Precipitate at one time than at another, and so laid it over with thicker Crust in as short a time. If we might be allowed briefly to examine the causes that have been assigned to the Production of this Concrete; I think we cannot well grant heat in the Kidneys to be a probable efficient Cause; a much more Intense Heat than is possible to be found here, being necessary to make Bricks, or bake Sand and Earth into Stone. Nor is it necessary to derive the material Cause from such a flimsy and roapy or mucilaginous Indisposition of the humours, that may perhaps coagulate and harden into a Stone. Such a viscous Urine being less apt to precipitate this gritty matter than more thin and limpid Urine. For I have found in more than one, where the Urine has often been so roapy and stringy that it would draw out into threads upon the application of a stick; but yet we never discover symptoms of the Stone in the Kidneys or Bladder of such Persons. Nor do I believe that an Acid meeting with some Alkalies may be reasonably concluded to constitute this so firm and solid a Concrete. Which does not at all hold good in our Analysis, nor does it seem reasonable, that Acids should make this Connection, since nothing that I know of but Acids will make the least Solution. Now if Acids make the first Bond of Union, we may expect from them rather that they should strengthen and confirm than shatter this Confederacy in pieces. Nor can I charge any putrifying morbid Ferment in the Kidneys with such a Coagulating power as will answer for the Product. This Hypothesis of Helmont being very precarious, and seems grounded on one uncertain Instance, of a Person that upon eating Asparagus, from that that time contracted the Stone in the Kidneys, which Plant he much discommends as well as the Raphani, upon the score of their ill sent, for disposing the Kidneys to putrefaction, and so to breed the Stone. Much might be said to invalidate this Hypothesis: but the common and innocent use of these Plants will secure us against this prejudice, upon which Observation his Hypothesis seems wholly to depend. We may also except against the Experiment of Coagulation, upon the mixtures of high rectified Spirits of Urine and Wine, which if warily managed will make a Coagulum with such expedition as seems very strange and surprizing: for this Concretion will easily be dissolved by water. In like manner if either of the Spirits be very phlegmatic, there will follow no Coagulation. In so much that the humours of the human Body contain too much water in them to admit such an Effect, even in those Constitutions that have used themselves to very highly rectified Spirits. Moreover Horses Doggs and other Animals that drink no wine are not free from this greasy Cementation. Nor could I ever discover any drop of vinous Spirits afforded upon our Distillation of this matter. I would not be thought here to excute these Ardent Spirits from doing mischief to the human body, but doe believe that they are apt enough to make ill Secretions and some Concretions of the humors, (tho' of another sort) I mean such as are visible enough in the faces of Great drinkers and the like. Nor is this disagreeable to our experiments, where tho' the diluted and weakened Spirits will not convene into a firm harden'd body, yet some lesser and softer Concretions will Subside to the bottom of the Glass. We may also question the Hypothesis of the Production of the Stone by Petrefaction. Stones are such fixt bodys that they yield nothing upon Distillation except a small Quantity Quantity of insipid water chance to rise, nor will they Exhale very much in an open fire, whereas we can volatilize six parts of eight of our Calculous matter: and obtain Salts and oyls. But to pass on: The chymists, who of all men suppose their Opinions the least subject to uncertainty, being grounded on experiments. They describe the Concretions of the body, and particularly this morbid one by calling them Tartareous: who conclude they have sufficiently accounted for the nature of a body, if they can but call it Tartar, which must be acknowledged to consist of Acid, and fixt Salts, called Alcalizat, and of some Tarra damnata; tho' it be very little in proportion to the other Salts. If we compare such Analyses of the Calculus which we have often made, with the aforesaid Tartar, we may then infer what little reason there is to Eclipse its nature by that denomination. We Distilled an ounce of Calculus Humanus, that was recently cut out of a body, which afforded about two drams of a brown Spirit, nearer to that of Harts-born than Urine. We put the Caput mortuum upon the Cupel and reduced it to near a dram, the rest burning and smoaking away. Another time we distilled in a naked fire a Stone that weighed two ounces, the Vapor came over upon a good strew of fire, and settled in the form of Salt without any liquor, of which we preserved only a dram, it appeared very brown and tasted bitter, as the fetid oil of Harts-born and other Empyreumatic Oils doe. We examined by boiling and evaporating water from the Caput mortuum, whether it held any fixt Salt, but found none. The Caput mortuum weighed one ounce and six drams, so that it lost only two drams in the Distillation; that is only two drams came over the Helme. We proceeded farther and placed this Caput mortuum upon a Test in an open fire, where where it burnt away to two Drams, 44 Grains: this we also boiled in water to see what salt it held, it scarce afforded a taste of Salt, scarce surmounting that we usually find in the like Quantity of common water. The Chymists do generally pass by one material Circumstance in their fiery Tryal: rarely enquiring after that considerable part evaporated in the open fire which in our present Experiment proves much the greater proportion of the Body. There being an ounce and three drams of our two ounces evaporated, of which we have no account, I endeavoured to save some of it, (tho I concluded it impossible to preserve very much) by placing a taper Chimney or Tunnel to receive the Smoak as the fire and a pair of Bellows raised it, which so far succeeded that I caught above two drams of this fuliginous Substance, and some drops of a water of a fetid saline Taste. To make many experiments with this Product it requires a greater Quantity of water than Lithotomists will easily furnish us with. The smoak of our common fires gives us a Sublimat, whose chymical Principles are no less considerable than the bodys from whence they ascend. For I lately found them not only to contain volatile Salts, Oyles, and Phl gm with other things, but even a Salt so near to common Sea Salt that it shot into Cubic Figures: much like to that we lately exhibited here in our Analysis of Urine. But seeing it was then objected that that Salt might probably be nothing else but the common culinary Salt we constantly take in with our Food, I have since distill'd the Urine of Horses, that were fed with Hay and Oates, and have obtained the same sort of Salt. Both of these Experiments confirm Dr. Grew's discovery of marine Salt in several Plants: which I am apt to think was Antecedent there, to its exposition in the open Air, for several reasons too large to be here mentioned: having been guilty of a small digression already. If we now compare this concrete with Tartar, we find the one a vegetable Salt wholly dissoluble in water: the other so stubborn, that several very corrosive Menstruums, that will easily dissolve Iron and Copper and Silver and almost any thing, will not make any impression here. The one affords a little volatile Salt, which is Alcalizat, and no fixt Salt. The other gives no volatile Salt, and a very large proportion of fixt. The one affords much more earthy Substance call'd Terra Damnata than the Hoofes or Horns of Animals, &c. and the other leaves us scarce any. One abounds with an acid Salt, which is sensible to the palate, and very manifest in the Spirit of Tartar, but in the other we could discover none upon the narrowest search. This leads us to the Examen of Tachenius his Experiment: which is this. He puts a whole Stone of the Bladder into a Retort, and distils over a liquor, which he acknowledges to be urinous; this done; he pours back the liquor upon the body from whence it was distill'd, which he says reduces this Caput mortuum after a short infusion to its former solidity. From whence he concludes some occult Acid mixt with this Alkali, must needs cause the hardening so friable a body, which, without it, will be apt to crumble into dust like the Subterranean Carcases of Rome, that molder away upon the least touch. A great fondness for the Hypothesis; made the Operator very careless in his Examination. For the Caput mortuum he supposes so very pulverisable, I could never find so, but after Distillation it remained almost as hard as formerly, and this is certain that upon the Reaffusion of the Spirit, it grew rather softer than harder. But if we reflect upon what has been said and experimented before, it will prove unnecessary to argue further against Tachenius. Hence we may infer that 'tis very dangerous to give the same names to things that are very opposite in their Natures: by this means men are very apt to be led into Errors. Thus the notion of presuming this mat- ter Tartareous, has put men upon using Medicines to destroy tartareous Concretions, as well as avoid many things that seem to have Tartar in them: and yet at the same time perhaps it may be as inoffensive as some of those Medicines that are substituted; at least, as Spirit of Salt or common Salt commended by Helmont. In like manner the notion of Petrification which seems, from whence the Stone derives its Name, may be no less erroneous, there being no agreement or Analogy in their Nature's whether we consider them Synthetically or Analytically. If we consider Stones in composito, there is a particular Weight or Gravity belonging to their Bulk in which they specifically agree. Several sorts I have weigh'd according to the Hydrostatical Laws, I find them agree in being twice as heavy as their Bulk of water, and about a fourth part more. This I found true in Wood, Bone, and Shells, when petrified, and even water itself, and some other Bodies tho never so light in their former state, as soon as they have obtained the form of stone they all become of the mention'd weight or very near it. But this which is called the Stone of the Bladder is much lighter, and several of them agree in being only as heavy as their Bulk of water and a 4th part more. This yields to none but the most potent Acids and particularly to Nitrous ones alone; the other is dissolved by almost any slight Corrosive. The one in our Analysis affords various constituent parts, and the other upon Distillation only a drop or two of insipid water, the rest remaining fixt. But we need not insist upon the difference which is so obvious. Since 'tis much easier to quarrel at other's Hypotheses than to invent better, in order to the giving some account of the Cause of this Nonnatural Concrete, I would lay down some Considerations. This Concrete may perhaps owe its Origine to a very soft and thin fluid; more remotely to the chyle strained through the Guts, and yet nearer the matter to the Blood itself, but nearest nearest and immediately to the Serum of the Blood which seems to be its proper Vehicle. We shall be the less surprized to derive such firm and solid Productions from fluids, when we consider that there are particles floating in the Blood always disposed to be converted either into Gristles, or to make up the solid Skull, Nails, Bones, &c. and that even the Teeth whose Texture is very firm, are made and supplyed out of the soft fluids of the Body. Even some of these solid parts of the Body may by a Disease of the Blood be abraded and absorbed by the common Fluid, and precipitated by their own weight upon the Pelvis; or else stick in the Tubules of the Kidneys, and so choak them up, and by degrees extend them to a Rupture, or grind them to pieces by a constant impulse of this gritty substance, which may at last convert the greatest part of the Kidneys into this firm Concrete. Moreover without any respect had to these solid abrasions, the Blood itself (of which the serum is a great part and with which it is intimately mixt) consists of heterogeneous Particles, of so various forms, sizes and shapes, which seems necessary for their accommodating themselves to all parts, that even these design'd to constitute the solid parts, may suffer such irregular changes in the Body, which may unfit them to pass the emulgent Vein, and so to continue their Circulation. In so much that the continued Impulse of this matter by the Artery may make very considerable Aggregates or Concretions in the Kidneys. And not only so but without either respect to Vein or Artery, the Serous or watery part of the Blood, which we said before was the Vehicle of the Stone, may have imbibed such heterogeneous gross and ponderous Particles, as may whilst in circulation, fluctuate and mix well enough together, but may very easily separate upon the least Stagnation. Thus Water and Oyl unite only by contact, and that that by a violent Concussion and agitation of their parts, which as soon part as the force is taken off. The various mixtures in a Torrent seem to make up one homogeneous Fluid, but if some part of this Fluid happen to fall into a Pit, or stagnate in a quiet place, we shall find it clear itself of Sand, Mud and other differing parts. So great a difference there is betwixt the humors during their motion and agitation through Veins and Arteries, and when they are in the quiet Passages of the Kidneys, or the more quiet state in the Bladder; as there is betwixt a Torrent and a Well: the first may hurry along with it such gross and ponderous parts, which easily subside in the other. That the Nature of this Concrete seems rather referable to Bone than to any other consistent or fluid part of the Body, I concluded by comparing chymical Products which I only very briefly relate. Having cleared the Bone of Marrow and Fat by boiling it in water, I distilled it and obtained about two drams and an half from an ounce of Bone of a volatile liquor impregnated with Salt, that smelt very much like that I have mention'd, which was very differing from Spirit of Urine; and nearer that of Harts-bone: I found the caput mortuum, as to weight, very consonant; and also could extract no manner of salt from it. For which reason Refiners make their Cupels of calcined Bones, they being forced to dulcify (which they call washing out the salts of) other Ashes before they can make Cupels of them. Last of all it herein also agrees with the calculus Humanus, vulgarly so termed, that few Acids will dissolve it, excepting those that are nitrous, nor do these work on it very vigorously. Herein they must be allow'd to differ in their specific Gravity, the Calculus not having so close and compact a Texture as the Bones have. For Bones I have found twice as heavy as their Bulk of water. An Index of some Experiments made in this Short Treatise. Several Stones of the Bladder and Kidneys were distill'd, all afforded volatile urinous Salts; which Ferment upon any Acids. Bones were distill'd and found to be of agreeable Principles. Petrify'd Water affords only fresh and clear water upon distillation. Calculi examined Hydrostatically, were found in proportion to their Bulk of water as 5 to 4. We weigh'd Flint, Crystal, petrify'd Water, Welch Diamonds, petrify'd Wood in water, and found them all very near of a specific Gravity and almost as heavy again as our calculous matter. We weigh'd Bones Hydrostatically and found them twice as heavy as their Bulk of water. Bones not easily wrought on by common Acids, only by nitrous ones and that without Ebullition. Various unsuccessful attempts made to dissolve the Callus, by acid and Acrimonious Menstruums, some were Vegetable and some Mineral, as Spirit of Salt, of Vinegar, of Venus, Oyl of Vitriol, &c. also with Alkalifat acria, as Sal Fraxini (which corrodes Glafs) Lapis Infernali, but none would touch it except nitrous. The Coagulation of Spirit of Wine has no place here Experiments to be made Relating to the Therapeutic Part. To discover innocent Menstruums that may dissolve the Stone. To examine the Condition of the Urine sometimes before a Paroxism both as to its specific Gravity and Contents. And also during the Paroxism to regard the painful water sometimes transmitted. To enquire into the Nature of nephritic Medicines. To examine Lython thripticks, so as to exclude those from that Class and Character, which have no relative Vertue that way: and to lessen the Catalogue of those mistaken specifics. To enquire into the Nature of the Hop, which is so much and perhaps innocently condemned for its aptness to generate the Stone. To explain the manner of the Operations of some Medicines, which tho they are not Lython thripticks yet may be good Nephriticks.