VIII. Remarks on the tendency to calculous diseases; with observations on the nature of urinary concretions, and an analysis of a large part of the collection belonging to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital

Abstract

Having, since my residence in the neighbourhood of Norwich, and my connection with the county hospital, paid considerable attention to calculous diseases and their concretions, I beg leave to lay some observations on those subjects before the Royal Society, to whose Transactions we owe much valuable information on the branches of pathology which relate to urinary complaints. Part I.— Of the tendency to Calculous Diseases . The county of Norfolk has long been remarkable for the occurrence of cal­culous diseases among its inhabitants; but there are no means of ascertaining how far this disposition extended, previous to the establishment of its hospital in 1772. Many of its cases went, of course, to the metropolis before that time; but there is, besides, every reason for concluding, that the operation of litho­tomy was frequently performed in Norfolk, during all the preceding part of the eighteenth century, both from the reputation and extensive practice of Mr. Gooch, one of the principal surgeons and surgical writers of his time, who lived near Norwich; and the occasional observations made by that gentleman in his surgical works, as to the skill, and experience in lithotomy, of practi­tioners in different parts of the county.