Crystals of Discontent
2012
Painful crystals of uric acid that form around your joints causes a form of arthritis known as "gout." As kidneys filter the blood of excess uric acid one's internal river is purified. But what if the waste itself was also purified, and its constituents reclaimed?
Samples my personal waste water during a gout attack can be purified through distillation powered by the sun's rays. The clean clear water leaves a concentrate from which pure crystals of various compounds can be collected, each kind of of compound forming crystals of a characteristic shape. Those of uric acid, calcium oxalate, and the phosphates clustered together reveal their distinct and inherent forms - orthorhombic and the like
The woodcut image of the woman pulling crystals out of a dead chicken is from the 1491 edition of Hortus Sanitatis, a medical text also known as the Garden of Health.
Robert Hooke's drawing from in his 1665 book Micrographia: or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses on the right. It shows his observations of "gravel of urine."
