From July 1748, to the beginning of 1757, his Lordship drank three English pints of lime-water, and swallow’d for the most part an ounce of soap, daily; except from April 1750 to June 1751, during which time he took only one pint of lime-water, and one-third part of an ounce of soap, daily. However speedily soap and lime-water may dissolve the greatest part of urinary stones out of the body, yet being mixed with the aliment and humours of the stomach and guts, and afterwards with the whole mass of blood, it is impossible but their force must be greatly impaired before they arrive with the urine at the bladder. When, therefore, urinary stones are of an uncommon hard texture, we are perhaps scarcely to expect any sensible dissolution of them by the use of soap and lime-water: but when they are of a softer kind, there is no reason to doubt, that these medicines will in time dissolve them; and this will happen sooner or later, in proportion to the hardness of the stone, to the quantity of the medicines swallowed by the patient, and the exact regimen he observes, as to diet[131]. But however slowly soap and lime-water may proceed in dissolving the stone, yet they generally give speedy relief to the patient. Lord Walpole did not take these medicines in the full quantity till the end of July 1748; and, in a few months after, he was not only greatly relieved of all his complaints, but in December was able to ride an hundred miles in his coach, without finding any uneasiness, altho’ the two last days of the journey the horses went at a full trot[132]. In winter 1750, and spring 1751, when his Lordship swallowed only one third part of the soap and lime-water, which he had been in use to take, his pains and frequent inclination to make urine returned in a good degree[133]; but, after taking the medicines in the full quantity, he soon became as easy as before[134]. It would seem, while Lord Walpole used only one pint of lime-water and one third of an ounce of soap daily, that the petrifying quality of his urine was not intirely destroyed, and that the stony particles newly formed on the surface of the _calculi_ occasioned, by their roughness, the return of his painful symptoms. However, when he had recourse to the medicines in a larger quantity, the petrescent quality of his urine was not only destroyed, but this fluid seems to have acquired a power of dissolving the rough stony particles deposited on the surface of the _calculi_; and in this way soon removed the pain, bloody urine, and frequent desire to make water, upon using any considerable exercise.