Volume 1

A descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the calculi and other animal concretions contained in the Museum / [By T. Taylor].

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum
Date:
1842-71
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the calculi and other animal concretions contained in the Museum / [By T. Taylor]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/214
    INTRODUCTION TO PART I. A KNOWLEDGE of the origin and composition of urinary calculi is com- paratively of recent date, and cannot be said to have existed previously to the year ]776, when the celebrated Swedish chemist Scheele led the way to all subse- quent inquiries on this subject, by the discovery of Uric Acid. What was however wanting in knowledge, was abundantly supplied by specu- lation ; for if we consult the works of medicine previous to his time, we shall find them filled with conjectures as to the nature of these bodies ; conjectures, which, however ingenious, were for the most part erroneous, generally absurd, and always founded on mere speculation. It would therefore be entirely use- less, to describe, more than cursorily, the various opinions which have been entertained respecting them, from the days of Galen and Pliny to those of Para celsus, Van Helmont, and even as late as Margraaf, who in 1775 investigated the action of fire upon urinary calculi, but without arriving at any correct con- clusions as to their composition. In the earlier times, the general opinion appears to have been that the calculi of the bladder were of an earthy nature, or consisted of inspissated mucus (pi- tuita or mucilago*), although at that period none of these terms had any precise meaning attached to them. A later, and perhaps, in the absence of experiment, a more natural view of the subject, caused them to be regarded as similar in com- position to the earth of bones. About the beginning of the 15th century, Para- celsus, in his first chapter, De Morbis Tartareis j, contends, that these bodies * In the MS. Catalogue of the Calculi in the British Museum from the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, and which was transcribed by Mr. Clift, some uric acid calculi are stated to be “ mostly made of pituita.” f Dr. Pearson states, that Basil Valentine first threw out the idea of the matter of calculus being allied to Tartar, Phil. Trans., 1798. Fourcroy attributes it to Van Helmont, which is certainly incorrect.—Systeme des Connaissances Chimiques. b
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3