Enlightened Minds and Stone Disease

Abstract

Introduction and Objectives

The knowledge of the seventeenth century was rapidly applied in the eighteenth. Within this century, the term “enlightenment” was coined from the French term “Lumières” and Kant’s essay of 1784 Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung? New thoughts on disease, especially stone disease, would rise from these enlightened minds.

Methods

A review of eighteenth-century literature and scientific publications are cross-referenced to the writings on stone disease. The beginnings of specific sciences that will be applied to our understanding of stone disease include the following: chemistry, physiology, pathology, mineralogy, and mineral chemistry.

Results

The Enlightenment is “mankind’s final coming of age” according to the late medical historian Roy Porter. All the elements that make our modern understanding of this ancient malady, urolithiasis, were developing. A few intrepid souls tried to tie all of these elements together. These included the Reverend Stephen Hales, two physicians Robert Whytt and Matthew Dobson, two pharmacists (protochemists) Karl Scheele and Andreas Marggraf, a surgeon S. Perry, and several monumental anatomists.

Conclusions

Mankind was on the cusp for great things, intellectually and industrially, by the eighteenth century. Stone disease began to be quantified for the first time. Incidence studies began to accrue information on stone disease, and chemistry was beginning to attack the speculations of eons. Stones were beginning to fall to mankind’s enlightened intellect.