as
4$o LIME-WATER, AND SOAP.
a heat of 96 degrees, the dried calculi had loft of their weight
follows : the firft 3 grains, the fécond 18 grains, and the third 14
grains.
Although I make no doubt that Dr Springsfeld, who appears to
be a man of candour, as well as learning, has faithfully related the
event of the experiments which he made; yet either the lime-
water he ufed muft have been very weak, or fome other miftake
mull have happened in his experiments: for in all the nume¬
rous trials I made, about 15 years ago, of lime-water as a folvent for
the Rone, I always found its diifolving power much greater than
it appears in Dr Springsfeld’s experiments. And as in thefe trials dif¬
ferent urinary flones were ufed, it can fcarcely be imagined, that it
was owing to the peculiar hardnefs of Dr Springsfeld’s calculi, that
the lime-water made fo little impreffion on them. However, to be
Rill further fatished of this matter, I made the following experi¬
ments.
1.1 put a piece of a very hard calculus, which I fhall call x9
weighing 80 grains, in oifter-fhell lime-water, renewing the lime-
water every day, and keeping it in a heat between 90 and 106 de¬
grees of Fahrenheit’s fcale. After 20 days, I took out the calculus .
and having fet it by for fome days, till it was become quite dry,
I brufhed away all the rotten part of it, which was reduced to
a kind of chalky powder, and found that the undiffolved part of
it weighed 57 grains.
2. At the fame time a piece of another calculus, z, weighing 15
grains, was, after a like infufion of 20 days in oifter-fhell lime-wa¬
ter, reduced to 10 grains.
3.1 put a piece of z, weighing 14 grains, in a folution of half
an ounce of the internal part of Spaniih foap in nine ounces of wa¬
ter, and every third day renewed the folution, which was kept in a
heat of about 60 degrees. After 14 days, I found the undiffolved
part not to exceed 11 grains.
4. A piece of a white chalky calculus,7, weighing 30 grains, had
near