Formerly a "first suburb" of Philadelphia, University City is a neighborhood situated west of downtown Philadelphia. It is today one of the most diverse areas of the metropolitan area in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, and socioeconomic status. University City is home to two major research universities, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and Drexel University (Drexel), which provide an immense economic base for the neighborhood in the scientific, medical, and technological sectors. The neighborhood features distinct historic housing, tree-lined streets, and a variety of restaurants and cafés. Additionally, the neighborhood provides many options for local shopping, museums, and theaters. Just as metropolitan Philadel-phia's economy and socioeconomic structure grew more diverse, so did University City's.

This book tells the story of how chemists, physicians, and surgeons attempted to end the problem of urinary stones. From the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, chemists wanted to understand why the body formed urinary, pancreatic, and other bodily stones. Chemical analysis was an exciting new means of understanding these stones and researchers hoped of possibly preventing their formation entirely. Physicians and surgeons also hoped that, with improved chemical analysis, they would eventually identify substances that would reduce the size of stones, leading to their easier removal from the body. Urinary stones and other stones of the body caused the boundaries of surgery, chemistry, and medicine to blur. The problem of the stone was transformational and spurred collaboration between chemistry and medicine. Some radical physicians in America and Britain combined this nascent medical advancement with older disciplines, like humoral theory. Chemists, surgeons, and physicians in Charleston, Philadelphia, and London focused on the stones of the body. Chemical societies and museums also involved themselves in the problem of the stone. Meanwhile, institutions in Charleston, Philadelphia, and London served as repositories of specimens for testing and study as previously disparate practitioners and disciplines worked toward the comprehensive knowledge that could, perhaps, end suffering from stones. The primary audience of this book is historically-minded chemists, surgeons, physicians, and museum professionals.