in the system, it is in itself of little moment; it will be only temporary. If such urine is continuous, it may direct the patient to consult his physician, to discover what is amiss, and this is the proper

course.

If the urine is turbid when first passed, and does not become clear on heating, but rather more thick and muddy, and the sediment is granular, attention must be given to it.

Most people know what gravel is, namely, a sediment in the urine of a red, or dirty white colour, usually attended with pain in the region of the kidneys, and often with pain in the bladder itself on passing water. The early stage of this disorder is very generally neglected. After a time the granular sediment from the urine formed in the bladder produces irritation and acute pain on making water; the small granules then adhere together into little masses which pass with difficulty, often producing an unnatural amount of the secretion of mucus by the bladder itself, which agglutinates them into larger masses, and forms stones. This is the history of most cases of stone. Futile, because misdirected, efforts, and palliative and

I

useless medicines and measures, are pursued until the dreadful and dangerous operation of cutting for or crushing the stone to remove it becomes the common resort. It was thus that the life of Napoleon the Third was brought to a premature close, and it is the fate of thousands. I fear it is not wholly without foundation that the profession are charged with preferring great and brilliant operations to the careful study of causes and the adoption of preventive remedies. But it must not be forgotten that the patient's own neglect, in leaving unnoticed the early symptoms, exonerates the physician who finds at the first consultation the disease far advanced.

Now the thick muddy urine and the resulting gravel and stone occur in two states of the general system, which require to be carefully distinguished before remedial measures are resorted to.

It is in the general system somewhere that the mischief begins. The materials of the deposit are abnormal products, either of faulty digestion or assimilation of the food, or of agencies affecting and misdirecting the changes in the elementary matters to fit them for expulsion (secretion). The

discussion of all this belongs to a medical treatise, but a few simple words will render it clear. Indulgence in high living, superabundant animal food, rich dishes, various wines, etc., with deficient exercise, impure air, and errors of regimen of various kinds, set these morbid changes going. The blood and flesh juices become deteriorated. As the kidneys form the channel through which impurities are to escape, their secretion is made unnatural; and in the kidneys themselves (i.e., in a little pouch which first receives the urine), the sediment agglutinates into masses forming stones.

What is to be done to prevent the evils thus arising? First, ascertain whether the urine is acid or akaline. This is effected by small slips of prepared paper-test papers,-obtained of any chemist; drop a blue paper into the recently passed urine; if it turns red, there is acid,-a red paper becomes blue-the urine is alkaline. Secondly, adapt the diet to the circumstances. In the first case, abandon acid wines (all wines in fact are more or less acid, so are most spirits, brandy for example); lessen the proportion of animal food, and increase the farinaceous and vegetable. In the

second case, reverse the order and manner of the

change.

This change of diet is a valuable adjunct to the treatment. A recent and most interesting discovery is now to be explained, as it exactly falls in with the design of this work.

With muddy urine, gravel (whether uric acid or phosphates), and incipient stone, there is often pain, irritable bladder, and other troubles. Opium, in one of its numerous forms, and a whole string of narcotics are employed as palliatives; and for ease a hundred nostrums are recommended, and everybody (more especially those who are entirely ignorant) has some infallible remedy. Mineral waters are favourites, and many of them certainly do this-they expedite the crisis of the disease, and complete the formation of the stone. The Emperor may almost be said to have fallen a victim to Vichy water.

As regards the pain, opiates are incomparably the best medicine for relieving it.

But the great remedy, which I have termed a discovery, is the substitution of pure distilled water for all other water, whether in soup, tea,

coffee, or other mixtures, and its free use as a beverage. I wish I knew to whom to give the credit of this discovery. It is precisely in the line of the highest science.

All water from natural sources contains more or less saline matter; lime and magnesia salts being invariably present. Generally, these constituents are not unwholesome. They give to water its agreeable taste, especially when accompanied with free carbonic acid; and when the system is in health they supply needful ingredients to the blood. In the condition we are speaking of, the minutest quantities of these salts added to those already present in too large a proportion, determines the formation of those compounds which go into the urine, and form stones.

It is an odd thing that the very means which science teaches are the most likely to aggravate the disease, are precisely those most frequently recommended for its relief.

No one who has studied the properties of water in its pure state, and when containing small quantities of salts, or even atmospheric air, will be surprised to hear of its effects when so far pure