I am,
SIR,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
John Pringle.
Postscript to Dr. Whytt's Observations on Lord Walpole's Case[201].
Read Dec. 8, 1757.
“ I Do not know, if it be worth while to observe, that lately, in making some experiments with different calculi, there was one almost as white as chalk, but of a less hard substance than the others; and which was not in the least degree dissolved or softned by being infused 20 days in oystershell lime-water, but yielded somewhat to a solution of Spanish soap in common water.
From this experiment one may conclude, that it is better to prescribe both soap and lime-water for the stone, than any one of them alone; and that if one of these remedies has failed of giving relief, the other ought to be tried: for as the above white calculus, which yielded a little to the solution of soap, resisted lime-water; so there may perhaps be others, that are readily dissolved by lime-water, but little affected by soap.
Dr. Springsfeld's experiments with lime-water are somehow not just; for in several calculi I have found the dissolving power of oystershell lime-water above eight times greater than he makes it.”
Some Observations on the lithontriptic Virtue of the Carlsbad Waters, Lime-water, and Soap: In a Letter to Dr. John Pringle, F.R.S. from Dr. Robert Whytt, F.R.S. and Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh.
SIR,
Read Dec. 15, 1757.