The Daily Union

We take the following from Rankin's Abstract of Medical Sciences, January number, for 1848, premising that the Hon. J. B. Sutherland, in his Medical Thesis, presented to the professors of the University of Pennsylvania when he graduated in 1812, proposed to dissolve the human calculus by galvanism--a minute description of which appeared in one of our medical journals some ten or twelve years ago:

"Mr. Orioli, one of the most distinguished philosophers with whom Italy is honored," says Becquerel, "proposes to use galvanism for the solution of the human calculus. Dr. Hall, of Norwich, conceived the same idea. Mr. Bourges de Mortiere dissolved a calculus out of the body weighing one gramme, perfectly in 24 hours, by galvanism. But MM. Prevost and Dumas have gone far towards establishing the possibility of successfully employing galvanism as a means of destroying a calculus. A fusible human calculus, placed in water, was submitted to the action of 120 pairs of plates during twelve hours. The basis and the phosphoric acid were liberated at their respective poles. but owing to the nature of the arrangement, they reunited in a fine powder. The weight in this period was reduced by 12 grains. Other trials were made during sixteen hours, and, at the end of this time, the calculus was reduced to a mass so friable, that the slightest pressure reduced it to little crystalline grains, which could be easily discharged. "

These experiments, it must be confessed, render it probable that this mode of removing calculi may take the place of the two operations at present in use. The editors of the 'Annales de Chimie' subjoin to this paper an observation, that nitrate of potassa dissolved in the water renders the decomposition of hard compact phosphates as easy as that of the porous kind. They also satisfied themselves that the viscus is not injured during the action of the pile."