"With respect to the means of determining when this diathesis is going on in the system, I am sorry that I can give but little positive information. The absence of urinary sediment, &c. are of a negative character, and lead to no inference, where other circumstances are wanting, as is most generally the case. But if there be pain in the region of the kidney, and other symptoms of gravel, without any appearance of sediment; and if the urine be acid, and of the yellow tint above alluded to, the stomach deranged, and an inflammatory diathesis, either general or local (i.e. about the urinary organs), be present; and if all these are associated with suppressed gout, or tendency to cutaneous disease,--the existence of this form of the disease may be suspected, and means immediately taken to counteract it." p. 138. We omit any analysis of the next chapter on the cystic oxide diathesis, on account of the rare occurrence of this state of the system. The next chapter of our author is on the phosphatic, or earthy diathesis. The phosphatic deposites are of two kinds; the _crystallized_, consisting almost invariably of the triple phosphate of magnesia-and-ammonia, and exhibiting the appearance of white, shining crystals; and the _amorphous_, consisting always of a mixture of the phosphate of lime, and the triple phosphate of magnesia-and-ammonia. The causes apt to produce a deposition of the triple phosphate of magnesia-and-ammonia, are thus enumerated by Dr. PROUT: