Gravel
small pebbles, stones, or fragments of stone, intermixed with sand loam, clay, flints, etc., formed by the action of water upon disintegrated portions of rock.
In pathology, the presence of minute concretions in the urine. It is usually owing to the presence of uric acid, urates, oxalates, and phosphates. Among exceptional urinary calculi are carbonate of lime, cystine, xanthine, fatty and fibrinous concretions. The chief symptoms are dull, aching pains over the renal regions, extending to the thighs.
GRAVELINES (gräv-lēn'), a town in the department of Nord, France; at the mouth of the Aa, 13 miles E. N. E. of Calais. Considerable historical interest is attached to the place, as the scene of Egmont's victory over the French (1558), and the place off which the English dispersed the Armada (1588). It was taken by the French in 1644, retaken by the Austrians after a 10 weeks' siege in 1652, and finally recaptured in 1658 by Louis XIV., who had it fortified by Vauban. Pop. about 6,000. GRAVELOTTE (gräv-lot'), a village of Lorraine, 7 miles W. of Metz. There, on Aug. 18, 1870, the French under Bazaine sustained a severe defeat by the Germans.