A few years ago a mixture of sulphuric ether, and turpentine was very extensively used, especially in France, as a solvent for gall-stones. This line of treatment was adopted on account of the well-known solubility of cholesterine in sulphuric ether, and it was thought that the remedy would act upon the cholesterine concretions in the gall-bladder in the same manner as it did out of the body. After a time, faith in the powers of the mixture became shaken, and it at length gradually ceased to be employed. Within the last year or two, Dr. Bouchut[28] has revived the same theory with another form of remedy, namely, chloroform, which he administers internally, with the view of dissolving any inspissated bile or biliary calculi that may be lodging in the gall-bladder. Dr. Bouchut states that he has treated one case of gall-stones in this manner with success. Now, although I have not the slightest desire to throw discredit on the statement of Dr. Bouchut, I must candidly admit that I am very much inclined to doubt the accuracy of his observations. In the first place, it is always {120} extremely difficult to ascertain the existence of biliary concretions so long as they remain in the gall-bladder, and it is equally difficult to know, after gall-stones have been once passed by a patient, whether or not all have come away. If, then, we administer chloroform to a patient, either before or after a gall-stone has actually passed, we cannot, with anything approaching to certainty, attribute the cessation of his symptoms to the circumstance of the chloroform having dissolved a gall-stone. In fact, on physiological grounds, I very much doubt the efficacy of either sulphuric ether or chloroform as solvents of gall-stones in the living body. Sulphuric ether, and chloroform would no doubt dissolve a concretion of cholesterine in the gall-bladder were they admitted into that viscus in sufficient quantity, and in a pure state. But we have no proof that such is the case. On the contrary, we know, at least in as far as chloroform is concerned, that exactly the opposite is the fact; for no sooner does chloroform become absorbed, and mingled with the constituents of the blood, than it becomes decomposed, the chlorine combining with the blood, and the formic acid being set free.[29] And even supposing that sulphuric ether and chloroform existed in the blood in a free state, they could not possibly do so in a sufficiently {121} concentrated form to be able to act as solvents of biliary calculi. [Footnote 28: "Edin. Med. Journ." 1861, p. 398.] [Footnote 29: Jackson, Comptes Rendus, February 25th, 1856.]