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in certain cases are found to be beneficial, and therefore deserve atrial. An infusion of the seeds of daucus sylvestris, or wild carrot,sweetened with honey, has been found to give considerable ease incases where the stomach could not bear any thing of an acridnature. A decoction of raw coffee-berries taken morning and eve-ning, to the quantity of eight or ten ounces, with ten drops ofsweet spirit of nitre, has likewise been found very efficacious inbringing away large quantities of earthy matter in flakes. Honeyis likewise found to be of considerable service, and may be takenin gruei, or in any other form that is more agreeable.
It is the opinion of Dr. Duncan that a solution of the subcarbon-ate of soda in pure water (in the proportion of a scruple to a pint)is preferable to the aerated soda water, on account of the carbonisacid gas not being disengaged on exposure to the atmosphere. Onthe addition of a small quantity of lemon-juice, or acid of tartar, avery agreeable effervescence is produced. The carbonate of soda,by being combined with an excess of carbonic acid gas in this pre-paration, is rendered not only more pleasant to the taste, but lessliable to offend the stomach ; and Dr. Duncan is of opinion that itis the only form in which the soda can be exhibited in sufficientdoses, and for a length of time, so as to derive any benefit fromits use.
Muriatic aeid (particularly in what is «ailed the phosphatic*diathesis) given in doses of twenty or thirty drops, three or fourtimes a-day, diluted with water, has been found, in several caseswhere gravel was expelled from the bladder, to afford considerablebenefit, and to appease the pain in micturition ; and is found,moreover, to be a powerful lithontriptic.
The only other medicine which we shall mention is the uva ursi.It has been greatly extolled of late, both for the gravel and stone.It seems, however, to be in all respects inferior to the soap andlime-water ; but it is less disagreeable, and has frequently, to myknowledge, relieved gravelly complaints. It is generally taken inpowder, from half a drachm to a whole drachm, two or threetimes a-day. It may, however, he taken to the quantity of sevenor eight drachms a-day, with great safety and good effect.
The consistence of such stones varies so much, that there is rea-son to fear no medicine will ever be found sufficiently strong todissolve the hardest of them, without destroying the bladder. Yetexperiments on this subject ought not to be discontinued, as theobject is great, and some hard substances are known to be solublein seemingly mild ones.
I have known several instances where stones, after getting intothe urethra, were brought away by means of a bent probe, but howto get them there is the difficulty. It can only happen while theyare small, though I have seen flatfish stones brought away in thismanner, which measured two inches round. I have sometimesthought that riding on a hard-trotting horse, or in a carriage on arough road, might tend to bring down a small stone.
Most people troubled with the stone are guilty of one great
* For an account of four species o/ calculus noticed by Dr. W«Uaston and Dr. GPearson, see Medical and Chirurgical Review, Vol. iv. p. 486. Vol. v. p. 306. Ed.
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