Note 410 — ON AIRS, WATERS, AND PLACES.

Our author, it will be remarked, ascribes the comparative immunity from calculus which females enjoy to their freer use of liquids. Celsus, in laying down directions for the regimen of a calculous person, as preparatory for the operation, among other things, directs, “ut aquam bibat,” (vii., 26–2.) Coray collects the opinions of several modern authorities in favor of drinking water as a preventive of calculus. Thus Tissot states that the Chinese, who drink so much water with their tea, enjoy almost an immunity from the disease. (De la Santé des Gens de Lettres, p. 196,) Campfer, in like manner, affirms that calculus has become less common in Europe since the introduction of tea, which he justly attributes to the amount of water drunk with it, rather than to any virtues of the plant itself. (Comment de Reb. in scient. nat. et medic. gestis, vol. xvi., p. 594.) Metzger attributes the diminution of the number of calculous cases in Königsberg to the use of draughts of tepid water. (Journal de Médec., vol. lxvii., 348.) The Turks, according to Thevenot, owing to their free use of water, are almost exempt from the disease. (Voyage au Lévant, c. xxvii., p. 70.)