The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Robert Peirce, Dr. (1622 - 1710)
Alias Robert Pierce [Alias]
Relevant locations: Lived at or near Bath, Somerset
Linked print sources: as Author (in assoc. with a ms or print source) - An Abstract of a Letter from Dr. Peirce of Bath, to one of the S. of the R. S. giving an account of a Shell found in one of the Kidneys of a Woman.
Linked Objects: Collector (minor) - shell
References in Documents:
An Abstract of a Letter from
Dr.Peirce
of
to
one of theS.
one of the
of the
giving an account
of aShell
of a
found in one of theKidneys
of a
Woman.
Sir.
Shell found in the Kidney of a
Woman is as follows; A
28 years of Age, very Fat, and Corpulent, after hav
ing been long troubled with frequent, and sometimes
violent Vomitings, fell at length into a Feaver, which
had no very ill Symptomes at first; yet she died in few
days, and on a sudden: for the satisfaction of her Re
lations, the body was opend; the lower Region being
first examind, I quickly found what might account for
her long Vomiting (and perhaps her Feaver and Death
too,) Scil. an Ulcer in the Pancreas; which had Spha
celated some part of the Stomac and Bowells, that lay
nearsest to it. But there having been many things
taken for the Stone, (many Physicians, as well as others,
imputing her Vomiting to that Distemper,) I was willing
to see in what condition her Kidneys were. They were
covered with a prodigious quantity of Fat; which re
moving with my hand, and reaching one of the Kid
neys I felt something prick my Finger in the lower part
of the Kidney where the Ureter is inserted: I presently
concluded it to be a Stone, and kept hold of it till I made
my way to it with my knife and took it out (with an a
bundance of mucous bloudy matter about it,) and laid
it by in the window: opening the Kidneys, I found not
so much as Gravell (much less any Stone,) in either of
them: upon further examination of this matter, (supposd
to be a Stone,) by washing off the mucus that was bout it,
hollow of it there was a mucous slimy matter, not at all
unlike the substance of a snail as to consistence; but
of a bloody colour.
Fig. 3d. Represents the Shell in its true bigness. Fig.
4th. shews the same Shell somewhat magnified: those
indented Checkers, are every other a little depres'd, and
elated: and very exactly Wrought: there are six or
seven spiral lines or Rounds, in the Turban.
Sir Your very
Humble Servant
Humble Servant
1685
An Abstract of a Letter from
Dr.Peirce
of
to
one of theS.
one of the
of the
giving an account
of aShell
of a
found in one of theKidneys
of a
Woman.