Dr. Whytt advises patients who are subject to frequent fits of gravel in the kidneys, but have no stone in the bladder, to drink every morning, two or three hours before breakfast, an English pint of oyster or cockle-shell lime-water. The Doctor very justly observes, that though this quantity might be too small to have any sensible effect in dissolving a stone in the bladder, yet it may very probably prevent its growth. When a stone is formed in the bladder, the Doctor recommends Alicant soap, and oyster or cockle-shell lime-water[124], to be taken in the following manner: The patient must swallow every day, in any form that is least disagreeable, an ounce of the internal part of Alicant soap, and drink three or four English pints of oyster or cockle shell lime-water. The soap is to be divided into three doses; the largest to be taken fasting in the morning early; the second at noon; and the third at seven in the evening; drinking above each dose a large draught of the lime-water; the remainder of which he may take any time betwixt dinner and supper, instead of other liquors. The patient should begin with a smaller quantity of the lime-water and soap than that mentioned above; at first an English pint of the former, and three drachms of the latter, may be taken daily. This quantity, however, he may increase by degrees, and ought to persevere in the use of these medicines, especially if he finds any abatement of his complaints, for several months; nay, if the stone be very large, for years. It may likewise be proper for the patient, if he be severely pained, not only to begin with the soap and lime-water in small quantities, but to take the second or third lime-water instead of the first. However, after he has been for some time accustomed to these medicines, he may not only take the first water, but, if he finds he can easily bear it, heighten its dissolving power still more by pouring it a second time on fresh calcined shells. The caustic alkali, or soap-lees, is the medicine chiefly in vogue at present for the stone. It is of a very acrid nature, and ought therefore to be given in some gelatinous or mucilaginous liquor; as veal-broth, new milk, linseed-tea, a solution of gum-arabic, or a decoction of marsh-mallow roots. The patient must begin with small doses of the lees, as thirty or forty drops, and increase by degrees, as far as the stomach can bear it[125].