Nephrolithiasis at the turn of the 18th to 19th centuries: biochemical disturbances. A genuine cascade giving rise to clinical chemistry.

This report will discuss the relationship between urinary calculi, urine composition and urinary sediment and the link to chemistry unveiled during the years 1775-1840. It was by this interconnection that physicians, who were also chemists, introduced some basic sciences into medicine particularly in studying normal and diseased metabolism. The chemistry of urinary stones definitely influenced the progress of medicine in the post-Enlightment period. "We would probably still not have chemistry, botany, or anatomy had not physicians studied and taught them." G. Cuvier Report on Natural Sciences, Paris 1980. Copyright 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel