No parts could have a sounder appearance than both the ureters and kidneys. The first were not dilated; nor did the last contain any stone, mucus, or gravel: the pelvis in each was of a natural size.
The rest of the abdominal viscera were in the same healthful state, except the gall-bladder, which was full of stones. The largest was about the size of a small chesnut, but rounder. The surface was smooth, particularly at one part, where it seemed to have rubbed upon a lesser calculus, of the shape of one of the vertebræ of a small animal, without the processes. This last had a hollow on each side corresponding to the convexity of the large stone; and these cavities being finely polished, it seemed as if sometimes one side, sometimes the other, of the small stone had been turned to the great one, and had been shaped in that manner by the attrition. The largest calculus weighed one drachm two scruples and two grains; the small one but nine grains: they both sunk in water; and felt specifically heavier than any stones I have ever seen taken out of the gall-bladder. Besides these two, there were several very small calculi of irregular shapes, and of rough surfaces, which all together did not weigh above five grains. Mr. Graham, who had attended his Lordship for about 40 years, assured me, that he never had any symptom that indicated a stoppage of the bile, or the passage of a stone from the gall-bladder into the intestines.
Neither the head nor breast were opened.
These are all the materials, I can furnish you with, relating to this case. If you desire to be more particularly informed of any of these circumstances, let me know, and I will endeavour to procure you all the lights I can. In the mean while, I should be glad to have your remarks upon what I have now sent you; and since you have been so long in the train of thinking, with more than usual attention, on this subject, I presume it would be very agreeable to the gentlemen of the Royal Society to have a paper from you on this occasion; and the rather, as his Lordship began his course of soap and lime-water, upon hearing of your success by that method of cure. I am,
SIR, &c.
John Pringle.
II.
Some Observations on the Case of the late Right Honourable Lord Walpole, of Woolterton: In a Letter to Dr. John Pringle, F.R.S. By Robert Whytt, M.D. F.R.S.
Edinburgh, March 16. 1757.
SIR,
Read April 21, 1757.