Volume 1

A dictionary of practical surgery / [Samuel Cooper].

  • Samuel Cooper
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of practical surgery / [Samuel Cooper]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/1282 (page 10)
    quantity, the crystallization is confused and disordered, the calculus only exhibiting an irre- gular misshapen concretion, more like a clot, than true crystals. The kind of adipocire, consti- tuting the base of all human biliary calculi, has some resemblance to spermaceti. Both Fourcroy and Dr. Bostock, who analysed it, found it com- posed entirely of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It melts, but requires a heat superior to that of boiling water: in fusion it has a smell like wax, and on cooling, forms a substance, which breaks into crystalline lamine. It is not soluble in alcohol in the cold; but, when the alcohol is boiled on it, it is dissolved in a proportion, ac« cording to Fourcroy, of one part in nineteen— according to Dr, Bostock, one in thirty. (Ni- cholson’s Journ. 8vo. vol. 4. p. 137.) The solution, when it vools, deposits light brilliant seales. It is soluble in ether in the cold, and more abundantly if the ether be heated. © Oil of turpentine generally dissolves biliary calculi ; and, according to. Gren, it dissolves those, which consist almost entirely of this peculiar matter ; yet, Dr. Bostock has remarked, that oil of tur- pentine acts on it with difficulty, and even when digested with it, at a boiling heat, dissolves it only ina small degree. Pure soda and potassa dissolve it completely, and reduce it to a sapona- ceous state. Ammonia, as Dr. Bostock has remarked, exerts little action on it, except when boiling. Nitric acid dissolves it, and, according to Fourcroy, converts it into a species of liquid similar to the oil of camphor. This, as Dr. Bostock has remarked, becomes concrete, but without any crystalline structure, and is more soluble in ether and the alkalis, than the original matter. “¢ This substance, (Fourcroy has observed, ) is contained in greater or less quantity in nearly all human biliary calculi, more or less intermixed with other matter, but still so far predominant as to form their basis. Hence, they partake of its properties ; are fusible, inflammable, and more or Jess soluble, in the agents, which dissolve it.” (See Murray’ s Syst. of Chemistry, vol. 4; p.594, Ed. 2.) Fourcroy, on exposing the above pecu- liar substance to the action of oxygenated muri- atic acid, saw it whitened, and afterwards resume its former silvery hue. However, Rubini repeated this experiment, and found, that the whiteness, ‘which was contracted, remained permanent. While the hepatic system contains a fluid which is always nearly of the same quality, viz. the bile, the alimentary canal, as Rubini observes, contains a hundred different fluids, and is con- tinually occupied by substances, of various na- tures, kinds, and properties, consisting of food, drink, and several secretions. All the principles, which are to serve for the formation and renewal of the different species of living solids, and of the many kinds of fluids, at first remain more or less time in the alimentary canal, and there undergo peculiar changes. All the principles, which, under different circumstances, may contribute to the producticn of morbid concretions, either in the gall-bladder, the urinary bladder, the kidneys, or in any other part of the body, where they ever occur, pass at first into the intestinal canal, where they continue for some time. Such a multipli- city of principles, disposed to crystallize, and be conyerted into calculi, would very often, almost daily, produce these concretions in the bowels, were there not many circumstances, which coun- teract this tendency, as, for instance, exercise, the incessant motion of the matter itself along the intestinal tube, the variety of these elements, whereby their requisite tendency to usite is dis- turbed, and the decomposing and recomposing influence of the gastric secretions, whereby parts are united, disposed of, dissolved, and analogous matter kept divided, &c. But, whenever these circumstances are not actively operating, as may be the case in a noose, or fold of the bowels, or in some preternatural. cyst belonging to them; — whenever the intestinal fluids undergo such an alteration, that the production of these con- cretions cannot be prevented ; or, lastly, when- ever some favourable circumstance, such as an extraneous nucleus, forms a centre of reunion for particular elements; then the saline matter, which is most disposed to crystallize, and the earthy and mucilaginous substances, &c. are attracted together, and produce more or less perfect crystallizations. A chemical analysis of some intestinal calculi, first made by Konig, and afterwards’ by Slare, (Philosophical Transactions) proves that when they are exposed to a strong heat in distillation, they yield water, ammonia, and a lixivious salt, a caput mortuum remaining behind. Cadet, in analysing a similar concretion, found in addition to the above products, phos- phorus. The muriate of ammonia was afterwards discovered ; and Gioberti, Fourcroy, and Vauque- lin, in their histories of the intestinal concretions met with in animals, describe them as composed of the acidulous phosphate of lime, phosphate of magnesia, and of the ammoniacal-magnesian phosphate. Some specimens, contained in the Edinburgh museum, were very carefully examined by Dr. T. Thomson: they at first swam in water, but afterwards sunk; the specific gravity varying from 1376 to 1°540. Cold water acquired trom them a brownish tinge, and took up albumen, which separated in white flakes by boiling. There was also a peculiar brown substance, at first dissolving in water, but rendered nearly insoluble by slow evaporation ; soluble in alcohol; and most nearly resembling vegetable extract. ‘The specimens likewise contained muriate of soda, crystallizing on spontaneous evaporation of the water: phos- phate of lime, precipitated by ammonia; sulphate of soda in minute proportion; and, perhaps, sulphate of lime. Alcohol dissolved the peculiar brown matter and some of the salts; caustic potash, the albumen, brown matter, and. perhaps some of the salts; and muriatic acid a proportion of phosphate of lime. After all, there remained a peculiar substance, having thecolour and texture of the calculus; in very short threads, light, - resembling cork, or rather agaric; tasteless, in- soluble in water, alcohol, ether, potash-ley, and muriatic acid; being blackened, and partly reduéed to charcoal by sulphuric acid; slowly dissolving by heat, without effervescence, in nitric acid ; and leaving on evaporation a whitish residue, of bitter taste, and imperfectly soluble in water; burning with a bright flame; but differing from ali other animal and vegetable substances hitherto ex-_ amined, and distinguishable from wood, by its insolubility in potash-ley. The caleuli consisted of alternate layers, or intimate mixtures of this