The talk among shareholders before Mercantile Bankshares Corp.'s annual meeting yesterday centered on ultrasound lithotripters, not earnings or stock prices. That's because the company's chairman and chief executive officer, H. Furlong Baldwin, was forced to miss the meeting because of an attack of kidney stones yesterday morning.

Mr. Baldwin, 62, had to skip what has been an occasionally provocative speech he's made to shareholders annually since 1976, when he became chairman of Mercantile. By the end of the day he had been released from the hospital and was said to be resting at home.