ARTICLE IX. Account of the Ballston Waters. The waters of Ballston have been long famous in America for their powerful medicinal effects; and we have been favoured by a correspondent with some account of them, from which we extract the following particulars : At the request of Mr. Livingston, a quantity of the water was sent him, during his residence in France, which he gave for examination to one of the most celebrated chemists" of that country, whose name, however, is not mentioned. The following is the result of the examination : "L'Analyse de l'Eau que M. L. m'a donné à analiser, contenant par Bouteille de 25 Onces. 22 grains 4. Muriate de magnesie (sel marin à base de magnesie) 12 grains 5 grains 5. Muriate de chaux (sel marin à base de chaux) 6. Carbonate de fer "Aucune eau minerale de notre continent n'est aussi riche en substances salines de ce genre; celle de Vichy, qui a une grande réputation, ne contient par bouteille qu'un dixiéme de grain de carbonate de fer, tandis que celle dont nous donnons l'analyse en contient 4 grains. C'est au fer que ces espèces d'eaux acidulées doivent leur qualités toniques et désobstruantes. "A la dose de deux bouteilles l'eau d'Amerique doit être un leger purgatif qui convient dans tous les cas, ou il est nécessaire d'évacuer la bile, et donner du ton au systême vasculaire; cette eau véritablement précieuse pour une infinité des maladies, semble avoir été formée par la nature, dans les meilleures proportions, pour guerir les pales couleurs, et les suppressions. On ne doute point que cette eau ne devienne un objet important de commerce.” With respect to the constituents of the water, we may conceive that the above account of them refers to the substances which were obtained by analysis, and not to the state in which they actually exist in the water. Its chief peculiarity consists in the large quantity of iron which it contains, according to this analysis, the carbonate composing part of the whole of the solid contents. If we estimate the composition of this salt, in round numbers, at about two parts of acid to three of the protoxide, of the resi duum will consist of the protoxide of iron, and the residuum being about 93 grains in a wine pint, this quantity of the water contains about three grains of the protoxide. The medical virtues attributed to these waters are those of a powerful tonic and deobstruent, and may be supposed to depend principally upon the great quantity of iron which they contain, and in some degree also on the neutral and earthy salts. The quantity of the muriate of lime in these waters is so considerable as to induce us to attribute some important effects to this ingredient, independent of the general purgative quality which will result from the combined operation of the whole. ARTICLE X. ANALYSES OF Books. I. An Essay on the Chemical History and Medical Treatment of Calculous Disorders. By Alex. Marcet, M.D. F.R.S. &c. &c. THE formation and deposition of various kinds of calculi, in different parts of the living body, constitute a series of actions that form an immediate connexion between the sciences of chemistry and medicine. An analysis of this work will, therefore, properly belong to the Annals of Philosophy; and it will be the more necessary to give an account of it, as the author has not merely afforded us a very correct and perspicuous view of what had been previously done by others in this department, but has also furnished us with some new facts, and described some new substances, which had not been before noticed. After detailing an account of the symptoms which characterize the presence of calculi in the different organs where they are usually found, and some curious facts respecting the comparative prevalence of calculous complaints in various districts, we come to the chemical part of this work, in which the author gives a description of the different species of urinary calculi, of their external characters, and chemical nature, and afterwards forms a classification of them. Many writers on this subject had arranged calculi according to the parts of the body in which they were deposited; but there seems to be no proper ground for forming any division of them from this circumstance. In whatever organ they are deposited, they probably all originate from the same cause, and it seems in a great measure accidental whether they are lodged in one part or another. The only correct principle of classification is their chemical composition; and this is the only mode which can be of any utility, either as affording us any chance of arriving at a correct theory of their formation, or any probable means of removing them by the aid of medicine. The external characters of calculi are described in detail: their form, size, colour, the nature of their surfaces, their specific gravity, odour, internal structure, the nucleus upon which the bulk of the calculus is often deposited, and the alternation of layers which they generally exhibit. We have next a sketch of the discoveries that have been successively made on these bodies, from the first rude attempts of Vanhelmont to ascertain their nature, to the more correct experiments of Scheele, Fourcroy, and Wollaston. The author has shown a proper anxiety to render to each chemist his due degree of merit ; and has in a spirited, but certainly very correct manner, vindicated the fame of his friend Dr. Wollaston against the encroachments of Foureroy, who most unaccountably published as his own discovery a number of important facts respecting urinary calculi which had been most explicitly announced two years before in the Philosophical Transactions by the English chemist. The substances which have been hitherto discovered in urinary calculi are five: lithic or uric acid, phosphate of lime, ammoniacomagnesian phosphate, oxalate of lime, and cystic oxide. These substances are, however, many of them at least, seldom found in a separate or pure state, but they afford certain combinations sufficiently constant to enable us to form our arrangement. Proceeding upon these principles, Dr. Marcet forms them into nine classes, under the following titles and designations:-1. The lithic calculus. 2. The bone-earth calculus, principally consisting of phosphate of lime. 3. The ammoniaco-magnesian phosphate, or calculus in which this triple salt obviously prevails. 4. The fusible calculus, consisting of a mixture of the two former. 5. The mulberry calculus, or oxalate of lime. 6. The cystic calculus, consisting of the substance called by Dr. Wollaston cystic oxide. 7. The alternating calculus, or concretion composed of two or more different species, arranged in alternate layers. 8. The compound calculus, the ingredients of which are so intimately mixed as not to be separable without chemical analysis, 9. Calculus from the prostate gland. Each of these species is then accurately described: we have an account of their discovery, of the circumstances under which they are most frequently generated, and of the action of chemical reagents upon them. In the review of these substances which is thus presented to us we cannot but be forcibly struck with the great obligations under which we lie to Dr. Wollaston. To him we are indebted for our knowledge of the existence of phosphate of lime, as constituting a distinct species of calculus; and the same remark applies to the triple calculus. With respect to the fusible calculus, although the late Mr. Tennant first discovered that it differed from the lithic acid of Scheele, yet it is to Dr. Wollaston that we are to ascribe our correct knowledge of its nature; and the same remark applies to the mulberry calculus and the cystic oxide. Except, therefore, the original discovery of Scheele, respecting the lithie acid, we owe to our learned countryman the correct knowledge of all the primary compounds of the calculi that are as yet distinctly known. Dr. Marcet may seem to have deviated from his plan in forming the ninth species, the calculus of the prostate gland, from its situation; but we learn that the calculi which are found in this organ possess a peculiar composition, or rather always exhibit the same chemical properties. For this fact we are again indebted to Dr. Wollaston, who found "that they all consist of phosphate of lime, not distinctly stratified, and tinged by the secretion of the prostate gland." Like the cystic calculi, which consist of phosphate of lime, the earthy salt is in its neutral state, without the redundance of lime which exists in the earth of bones. The author has hitherto been principally occupied in conveying to us, under a correct and commodious form, the information that had been previously afforded by others; but in the next chapter we enter upon new ground. We have an account of two calculi, which cannot be referred to any of the species hitherto described." The first of these seems to have the most analogy or resemblance to the cystic oxide, but it possesses sufficient marks of distinction; for we are informed that the new substance forms a bright lemon residuum on evaporating its nitric solution, and is formed of laminæ, whereas the cystic oxide is not laminated, and leaves a white residue from the nitric solution. Although they are each of them soluble both in acids and alkalies, yet the proportion of effect is different in the two cases, the oxide being rather more soluble in alkalies, and considerably more so in acids, than the new substance. Upon the whole, there seems no doubt of its being really a calculus of a new and peculiar nature. On this account Dr. Marcet has conceived it necessary to give it an appropriate name, and he has chosen the property which it possesses of forming the yellow residuum from the nitric solution as one of its most specific and distinguishing properties, and has accordingly denominated it xanthic oxide. The other new calculus was found to possess properties exactly similar to those of the fibrine of the blood, was no doubt formed by a deposit from this fluid, and accordingly has received the appellation of fibrinous calculus. The sixth chapter is on the analysis of urinary calculi, in which the object of the author is not so much to propose any new methods of examining these bodies, or to detail any discoveries which he has made upon the subject, as to point out to medical practitioners a few simple tests and easy processes by which they may ascertain the prevailing nature of the concretion, so far as concerns the kind of remedies to be employed. Tests are therefore given for each of the species above enumerated, and directions given for their application, which seem to be well adapted to the proposed object. We have a number of interesting facts in the seventh chapter, on some other kinds of animal concretions, which do not belong to the urinary passages. These have been occasionally found in most of the viscera, the salivary glands, the pancreas, the spleen, the lungs, and other parts; but those of the most frequent occurrence, and most importance in medical practice, are concretions in the intestinal canal. Of these many varieties are described, obviously consisting, in a great measure, of substances taken into the stomach, and detained, or accidentally mixed with other matters, and moulded into the round form by the action of the bowels. One of the most remarkable of the intestinal calculi is a species, which appears not to be uncommon in Scotland, consisting of concentric layers of a brown velvety substance and a white earthy matter. The white matter appeared to be composed of a mixture of the two phosphates, but the brown substance was more puzzling: its nature, however, was discovered by the sagacity of Dr. Wollaston, who found it to be formed of minute vegetable fibres, derived from a kind of beard, which exists at one extremity of the seed of the oat. It would be scarcely consistent with the nature and object of the Annals to follow Dr. Marcet through his remarks on the medical treatment of calculous disorders. Enough has been said to point out the nature of the work, and the manner in which it has been executed it may be characterized as exhibiting a correct and elegant view of the present state of our knowledge on the subject of calculi, and likewise as affording some valuable additions to it. It is accompanied by some very excellent plates, representing the different species of concretions, and the apparatus employed in their analysis. H. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the Year 1817, Part I. This Half-Volume contains the following Papers. 1. An Account of the Circulation of the Blood in the Class Vermes of Linnæus, and the Principle explained in which it differs from that in the higher Classes. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. V. P. R. S. 2. Observations on the Hirudo Vulgaris. By James Rawlins Johnson, M. D. F. L. S., &c. 3. On the Effects of Galvanism in restoring the due Action of the Lungs. By A. P. Wilson Philip, Physician in Worcester. 4. An Account of some Experiments on the Torpedo Electricus, at La Rochelle. By John T. Todd, Esq. 5. A Description of a Process, by which Corn tainted with Must may be completely purified. By Charles Hatchett, Esq. F.R.S. 6. Observations on an Astringent Vegetable Substance from China. By William Thomas Brande, Esq. Sec. R. S. 7. Some Researches on Flame. By Sir Humphrey Davy, LL. D. F.R. S. V. P. R. I. 8. Some new Experiments and Observations on the Combustion |