Bagatelle, or trifle, we fhall leave to the smarts; as it would be a pity to rob them of the chief object of their Study. Pet-en-l'air may fuit very well with French effronterie; for if the ladies of that country make no fcruple of watering their ruelles before the gentlemen who attend their levees, I fee no reafon why they fhould be afhamed of a f-t; but as no fuch offenfive wind is ever fup poled to blow from fair English b-ms, we could wish they had found a name of a little more delicacy for this garment. We therefore humbly pray, that French words, as well as French drefs and French manners, may be laid afide, at leaft during the continuance of the prefent war; for we are apprehenfive, fhould their language and cuftoms defcend to us, we should be taught, by their example, on the day of battle, to f-te le camp. For these reasons we pray as above: and fhall, as in duty bound, hold them in everlasting abhorrence. LEGION. To the author of the SCOTS MAGAZINE. SIR, Linlithgow, Sept. 18. 1758. I young children, called by our honest housewives Throbbing, you will very much oblige fome of your conftant readers. In this disease they have fome intervals of eafe; but when the throbbing attacks them, they are much diftreffed in their breathing, and make a noife through their throat, as if they were ftrangling. The cure is, a pure, greenish, and pleafant liquid, obtained in this manner. Take about a Scots pint of fhell-fuails, fuch as are found about garden-walls, (thofe in May are the beft); wash them, to take away any dirt that may be on the outfide of the fhells; and immediately put about as much powder-fugar as can be taken up betwixt the finger and thumb, upon the fnail, into the mouth of the fhell; this prevents their crawling out; then prick them to death, by putting a large needle or point of a fork twice or thrice through the thell and fnail both; then put them all to gether into a clean woollen cloth of pock, hang them up in fome convenient place, and put a bowl below to receive what drops from them. This is the de fired liquid; and as much will drop from them in about two days as will complete a cure. It may be given the childre at any time, and in any quantity. The ordinary dofe is, a foop-fpoonful in the morning at once. Some eat it with bread at any time for their common food; which makes them, as the phrafe is, both fat and fair. Such is the known good effects of this liquid, that fome people in Bathgate, where no fuch fnails are found, have been at the pains to gather them here. Linlithgow, and put them in about the foot of their dikes there, in order to propagate them; but to no purpofe; for they always die. The diftance betwixt Linlithgow and Bathgate is only about three miles; yet it is a certain fact, that fuch fails as are found here, can neither live nor propagate there. As this feems a little extraordinary, it is earneftly wifhed, that fome of your philofophical correfpond ents would account for it.—I am, E. J. B. M. LONDON CHRONICLE, Sept. 9. The terror of France; His thoughts are wife and secret, His religion without fuperftition. But words are wanting to fay what: Say all that's great and good, and he is tha Sept. 5. 1758. Fr From Phil. Tranf. vol. 50. pert 1. for 1757. was feized with a lingering feverish difor A letter from Dr John Pring to Dr Ro- I London, Feb 22. 1757. der, very much affecting his fpirits, but entirely unconnected with the tone. Dr. Shaw, who attended his Lordfhip for me, that there had never been any stopabout a fortnight before his death, told page of water, or pafling of bloody uImagined, that upon hearing of Lord rine, or any pain about his bladder or Walpole's death, you would be de- kidneys, during his laft illness; but that fi ous to know the fate of his Lordship's he now and then felt fome irritation in health from the time he published his making water; a symptom too inconfiown cafe; whether he continued the ufe derable to require any other medicine of his medicines to the laft; what dif- than the continuation of his lime-water; temper he died of; and, if his body which, in a smaller quantity, he drank was opened, what was the condition of till within two or three days of his end. his bladder and kidneys. I informed. Mr Ranby and Mr Hawkins, furmyfelf, as well as I could, of all these particulars; and I hope I shall be able to give you fome fatisfactory account of moft of them. Last year, in the month of March, aboat ten months before his Lordship's death, I happened to meet him at a friend's houfe, where he dined; and never faw any man of his age with a more healthful appearance. He was then in his 78th year. He eat with an appetite, and of a variety of difhes; drank fome Madeira, and was very chearful the whole time. His Lordship then told me, that he had enjoyed perfect health fince he fen his cafe to the Royal Society; that he thought it probable there was still a ftone in his bladder, but fo diminifhed, or fmoothed, as to give him no uneafinefs; that he did not think it fafe to go about the streets of London in a coacn, but that he went every where in a chair; and that, in the country, he could travel forty miles-a day in his poft-chaife, without fatigue, or feeling any of his old Fains upon the motion: that he conti nued to drink, for a conftancy, three pints of oyster-fhell lime-water daily; and to take, as often, from half an ounce to a whole ounce of foap, by way of lenitive. All these circumstances I am fure of, because I noted them down when I came home. From this time to the beginning of winter, Lord Walpole (as Mr Graham, his apothecary, informed me) continued in the fame ftate of health; but fome time after coming to town, his Lordfhip VOL.XX. geons, with Mr Graham, were prefent at the opening of the body; and from the two laft I received the account of the diffection. The coats of the bladder appeared to be a little thicker than natural, but were otherwife found. The glandula proftata was of a large fize, but not diftempered. They found three calculi; two lying loofe in the bladder; and the other, a very fmall one, fticking in the paffage, at that part which is furrounded by the prostate gland. Mr Graham favoured me with a fight of them all. The two firft were very much alike, being of the fhape and fize of the kernel of a Spanish nut; only the fides were irregulary flattened, but without forming any fharp angle. The furface of each was every where fmooth, except where there had been a feparation of fome fmall scales, not fo thick as one's nail; and the largeft exfoliation from one of these stones appeared to have been nearly about the breadth of the nail of my little finger. The polith otherwife, as well as the colour of both, might be compared to a boy's marble. One of thefe calculi weighed 21 grains, the other 22 grains: they were heavy for their bulk, and feemingly of a hard fubftance. The fmalleft tone having been put up with fome ethers of the fame fize, taken out of the gall-bladder, Mr Graham could not be pofitive which of them it was; and therefore I can only fay, that what he thought most likely to be fo, was about the fize and fhape of the feed of an apple, 3 Y with with the point broken off and the edge ragged. This, as I obferved, was found in the paffage, feemed to be coming away, and probably had occafioned that irritation the patient had now and then felt during his laft illnefs. It weighed only about a grain. No parts could have a founder appearance than both the ureters and kidneys. The firft were not dilated; nor did the laft contain any flone, mucus, or gravel: the pelvis in each was of a natural fize. you; and fince you have been fo long JOHN PRINGLE. Dr Whyte's anfier. PH ed more widely in any thing, than in their opinions of the medicines lately propofed for the cure of the ftone. While fome imagined, that Mrs Stephens's me The rest of the abdominal viscera were in the fame healthful ftate, except the gall-bladder, which was full of ftones. The largest was about the fize of a fm ll chefnut, but rounder. The furface was fmooth, particularly at one part, where it feemed to have rubbed upon a leffer calculus, of the fhape of one of the verdicines [i. 268.], or foap and lime tebra of a fmall animal, without the proceffes. This laft had a hollow on each fide correfponding to the convexity of the large ftone; and thefe cavities being finely polished, it seemed as if fome. times one fide, fometimes the other, of the small stone had been turned to the great one, and had been fhaped in that manner by the attrition. The larget calculus weighed one drachm two fcruples and two grains; the fmall one but nine grains: they both funk in water; and felt fpecifically heavier than any ftones I have ever feen taken out of the gall-bladder. Befides these two, there were feveral very fmall calculi of irregular shapes, and of rough furfaces, which all together did not weigh above five grains. Mr Graham, who had attended his Lordship for about forty years, affured me, that he never had any fymp. tom that indicated a stoppage of the bile, or the paffage of a ftone from the gall. bladder into the intestines. Neither the head nor breaft were opened. Thefe are all the materials I can furnith you with, relating to this cafe. If you defire to be more particularly informed of any of thefe circumftances, let me know, and I will endeavour to procure you all the lights I can. In the mean while, I fhould be glad to have your remarks upon what I have now fent water, were in moft cafes to accomplish 1. Whatever doubts may have beer. entertained concerning the cause of Lor Walpole's complaints, yet it now ap pears evidently beyond difpute, the the they must have been owing, not to a fcorbutic corrofive humour in his bladder, as was imagined by fome *, but to ftones lodged in it. Thefe ftones may poffibly have lain there fince 1734; for from that time to fpring 1747, his Lordship was free of any gravelifh complaints, only paffing fome red fand at times. But at what time foever they may have first arrived in the bladder, in 1747 and 1748 they feem to have acquired fuch a bulk, or were become fo rough or pointed in their furface, as to occafion great pain, frequent provocations to urine, and fometimes bloody urine; especially after any confiderable motion. These complaints, however, were foon relieved, by fwallowing daily an ounce of Alicant foap, and three English pints of lime-water made with calcined oyfter-fhells: and from 1748 to 1757 his Lordship was kept almost entirely free from any return of them, except for fome months of 1750 and 1751, during which he took only one third part of the quantity of foap and lime-water above mentioned t. 2. It is highly probable, nay, I think, altogether certain, that the foap and lime-water not only relieved Lord Walpole of the painful symptoms occafioned by the ftones in his bladder, but alfo prevented their increase. If these ftones came into the bladder in 1734, they muft, in fo many years as his Lordfhip lived after this, have ac. quired a very great bulk: nay, if we fuppofe them not to have been lodged in the bladder above a year before they began to occafion frequent inclination to make urine, with pain, and fometimes fudden ftoppages of urine; yet, from 1746 to 1757, they ought to have grown to a much larger fize than that of the kernel of a Spanish nut . It is true, the stone may increase fafter in fome patients, and flower in others; but ftones, after remaining a dozen or more years ⚫ Phil. Tranf. vol. 47. p. 48. and Eff on lime-water, edit. 2. p. 197. + Phil. Tranf. vol. 47. p. 48. and 473. and Eff. on lime-water, p. 157. & 200. The two tones found in Lord Walpole's bladder were of this fize, and weighed, one of them 22, and the other 21 grains. in the bladder, generally weigh feveral ounces. Some years fince I faw a ftone, weighing near fix ounces, taken from a boy of no more than fourteen years of age. 3. Lord Walpole's cafe not only fhews the power of foap and lime-water to relieve the painful fymptoms, and prevent the increase, of the ftone in the bladder, but also makes it probable, that these medicines do communicate to the urine a power of diffolving the stone. In the beginning of 1749 his Lordfhip voided with his urine a calculous fubftance of a flat shape, about the bignefs of a filver penny, and covered with a foft white mucus ; and upon the furfaces of the ftones found in his bladder there were fome inequalities, which feemed to have been made by the feparation of thin lamella or scales. Further, the fmall ftone found in the beginning of the urethra must have been in a diffolving ftate, and confiderably leffened in the bulk: for, if it had lain long in the bladder, and never been larger, it ought to have been voided through the urethra with the urine; and it could not have arrived lately in the bladder, fince Lord Walpole had not had, for feveral years before his death, any nephritic pains, or fymptoms of ftones paffing from the kidneys; and fince it is not likely, that a ftone of the fize and shape of the feed of an apple * would país through the ureters without being felt. Now, if this fmall ftone, found in the urethra, was partly diffolved by the virtue of the soap and lime-water; it will appear at least probable, that the two larger ftones in the bladder were fo likewife. But although Lord Walpole's calculous concretions had remained undiminished, and without any symptoms of diffolution; it would not therefore follow, that foap and lime water cannot diffolve the ftone in other patients, where the concretion may be of a lefs firm texture. The Rev. Dr Richard Newcome, now Lord Bishop of Llandaff, while drinking two English quarts of lime-water Phil. Trans. vol. 47. P. 47 The ftone found in the beginning of the paffage from the bladder was of this fize, and weighed about a grain. 3 Y 2 daily, daily, for the cure of the ftone in his bladder, poured his urine every morning and evening upon a piece of human calculus weighing 31 grains; by which, in the space of four months, it was reduced to three pieces, weighing in all only fix grains. Upon one of thefe pieces, weighing 2.31 grains, he caufed to be daily poured, for two months, the fresh urine of a perfon who drank no limewater; at the end of which time the piece of calculus was found to weigh 2.56 grains, having increased in weight a quarter of a grain. This fame piece being afterwards fteeped in the Bishop's urine (who continued to drink lime water as above) from June 24. to July 9. was in these few days quite crumbled into powder. Since this experiment fhews, beyond difpute, that lime water, unaffifted by foap, can communicate to the urine a power of diffolving the ftone out of the body, it can scarcely be doubt ed, that it must have the like effect on it when lodged in the bladder. And that the diffolution of the ftone in the bladder has been completed by foap a lone, appeared evidently in the cafe of the Rev. Mr Matthew Simfon, minifter of Pancaitland near Edinburgh; an account of which will foon be made public by Dr Auftin, who opened his body after death. Mr Simfon had, from 1730, been afflicted in a lefs or greater degree with the fymptoms of a stone in the bladder; and in November 1735 was found ed by Dr Drummond of Perth, and Mr Balderfton, furgeon in this city, by whom a ftone was not only plainly felt, but also by the patient himself. In February 1737 he began to take foap; and after 1743 never had any gravelifh fymp. toms. He died in May 1756; and when his bladder was looked into, there was neither ftone nor gravel found in it. 4. It appears from Lord Walpole's cafe, that foap and lime water, even when taken in large quantities, proceed very flowly in diffolving the ftone. From July 1748, to the beginning of 1757, his Lordship drank three Englith pints of lime-water, and fwallowed for It is printed in this volume of the Phil. Trans. under the 28th of April, p. 221. & feqq. the most part an ounce of foap, da except from April 1750 to June 19 during which time he took only pint of lime water, and one third of an ounce of foap, daily. How fpeedily foap and lime-water may folve the greatest part of urinary out of the body, yet being mixed. the aliment and humours of the tot and guts, and afterwards with the mafs of blood, it is impoffible but force must be greatly impaired b they arrive with the urine at the bla When, therefore, urinary ftones a an uncommon hard texture, we an haps fcarcely to expect any fenfib folution of them by the ufe of foar lime-water: but when they are oft er kind, there is no reason to that thefe medicines will in time & them; and this will happen foor later, in proportion to the bardn the ftone, to the quantity of the cines fwallowed by the patient, a exact regimen he obferves, as to But however flowly foap and lim ter may proceed in difiolving the yet they generally give ípeedy re the patient. Lord Walpole di take thefe medicines in the full q till the end of July 1748; and, in months after, he was not only relieved of all his complaints, but cember was able to ride an hi miles in his coach, without findm uneafinefs, although the two las of the journey the horfes went at trot . In winter 1750, and 1751, when his Lordfhip fwallow ly one third part of the foap and water which he had been in ufe to his pains and frequent inclint make urine returned in a good ceg but, after taking the medicines full quantity, he foon became as before *. It would feem, while Lord W ufed only one pint of lime water s third of an ounce of foap daily, t petrifying quality of his urine w Efay on lime-water, p. 140. |