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055 - Urostealite a new substance found in vescical calculi

Autor(s): G. Dall'Olio

Issue: RIMeL - IJLaM, Vol. 4, N. 1, 2008 (MAF Servizi srl ed.)

Page(s): 55-58

The chemist Johann Florian Heller in 1845 found a peculiar substance which formed some vescical calculi in a man. He thought it was a yet unidentified substance that named urostealite. During the investigation of its chemical properties he observed a high solubility in sodium carbonate. Heller tested the use of sodium carbonate to remove calculi from bladder. The experiment was successful, confirmed by urine analysis before and after the use of sodium carbonate in the patient. Ammonia produced reddish-brown colouring of the urine containing urostealite, Heller used this colorimetric reaction as a laboratory test for urostealite detection. Heller thought also that urostealite in the uman body was a “chemical sign of disease” useful for the physician’s diagnosis.

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