Erasmus Darwin

“ Gout-stones are formed on inflamed membranes, like those of the kidnies above described, by the too hasty absorption of the thinner and saline parts of the mucus. Similar concretions have been produced in the lungs, and even in the pericardium; and it is probable, that the ossification, as it is called, of the minute arteries, which is said to attend old age, and to precede some mortifications of the extremities, may be a process of this kind. ”

“ There is reason to believe, that the daily use of opium contributes to produce gravel in the kidnies by increasing absorption, when they are inflamed; in the same manner as is done by fermented or spirituous liquor. See Class I. 3. 2. 11.
When the kidnies are so obstructed with gravel, that no urine passes into the bladder; which is known by the external appearance of the lower part of the abdomen, which, when the bladder is full, seems as if contracted by a cord between the navel and the bladder; and by the tension on the region of the bladder distinguishable by the touch ”

“ The pain in the loins and along the course of the ureter from a stone is attended with retraction of the testicle in men, and numbness on the inside of the thigh in women. It is distinguished from the lumbago or sciatica, as these latter are seldom attended with vomiting, and have pain on the outside of the thigh, sometimes quite down to the ankle or heel. See Herpes and Nephritis.
Where the absorption of the thinner parts of the secretion takes place too hastily in the kidnies, the hardened mucus, and consequent calculous concretions, sometimes totally stop up the tubuli uriniferi ”

“ The nucleus, or kernel, of these concretions is always formed in the kidney, as above described; and passing down the ureter into the bladder, is there perpetually increased by the mucus and salts secreted from the arterial system, or by the mucus of the bladder, disposed in concentric strata. The stones found in the bowels of horses are also formed on a nucleus, and consist of concentric spheres ”

“ Nares aridi. Dry nostrils with the mucus hardening upon their internal surface, so as to cover them with a kind of skin or scale, owing to the increased action of the absorbents of this membrane; or to the too great dryness of the air, which passes into the lungs; or too great heat of it in its expiration.
When air is so dry as to lose its transparency; as when a tremulous motion of it can be seen over corn fields in a hot summer's day; or when a dry mist, or want of transparency of the air, is visible in very hot weather ”

“ Whereas the particles of gravel are generally without angles, and always drop to the bottom of the vessel, immediately as the water is voided.
Though the proximate cause of the formation of the calculous concretions of the kidneys, and of chalk-stones in the gout, and of the insoluble concretions of coagulable lymph, which are found on membranes, which have been inflamed in peripneumony, or rheumatism, consists in the too great action of the absorbent vessels of those parts; yet the remote cause in these cases is probably owing to the inflammation of the membranes ”

“ Nooth's glass-apparatus, and drank every day, or twice a day, is the most efficacious internal medicine yet discovered, which can be easily taken without any general injury to the constitution. An aerated alcaline water of this kind is sold under the name of factitious Seltzer water, by J. Schweppe, at No 8, King's-street, Holborn, London; which I am told is better prepared than can be easily done in the usual glass-vessels, probably by employing a greater pressure in wooden ones. ”

“ To prevent the increase of a stone in the bladder much diluent drink should be taken; as half a pint of water warmed to about eighty degrees, three or four times a day: which will not only prevent the growth of it, by preventing any microcosmic salts from being precipitated from the urine, and by keeping the mucus suspended in it ”

“ The pain of the shoulder, which attends inflammations of the upper membrane of the liver, and the pains of the arms, which attend asthma dolorificum, or dropsy of the pericardium, are distinguished from the chronic rheumatism, as in the latter the pain only occurs on moving the affected muscles. ”

“ But as these are formed by the indurated mucus of the intestines alone without the urinary salts, it is probable a difference would be found on their analysis.
As the stones of the bladder are of various degrees of hardness, and probably differ from each other in the proportions at least of their component parts; when a patient, who labours under this afflicting disease, voids any small bits of gravel ”

“ After the patient has been thus evacuated, a blister on the loins should be used; and from ten to twenty electric shocks should be passed through the kidnies, as large as can be easily borne, once or twice a day. ”