-When the digestion is properly carried on, all the constituents of the urine are soluble; but when the digestion and tissue change are imperfect, waste products are apt to accumulate, and one of the great outlets for them is the kidneys. Ordinarily the solid constituents of the urine are washed away by the flow into the bladder as gravel, but sometimes they accumulate in the kidney itself, and form stones of larger or smaller size. The small ones may pass away, but the larger ones remain, and if they increase in size they may eventually cause destruction of the kidney. The smaller stones (calculi) in their passage into the bladder from the kidney occasion great pain (renal colic), analogous to that caused by the passage of gall- stones (biliary colic).
General Treatment.-The treatment of the condition which results in gravel consists chiefly in attention to the general health and diet. Some patients are always better in health when they pass gravel, which means that when they do not pass it the effects matters are still in the blood. When they do, these matters are being got rid of by the kidneys. But if digestion and tissue- change were perfectly formed, there would be none to secrete. Those subject to gravel are generally of gouty constitution, and the regimen recommended for Gout is equally applicable here.
Medicines.-(Four times a day.)
Lycop. 6 after food.
Sepia 6.
-Pasty sediment, reddish or white.
See also RENAL COLIC.
