Lectures on some of the applications of chemistry and mechanics to pathology and therapeutics / by H. Bence Jones.

Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on some of the applications of chemistry and mechanics to pathology and therapeutics / by H. Bence Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    in healthy uriue, I thought that some evidence for or against an acid fermentation might be got by determining the amount of sugar in the urine, first when fresh, and afterwards when it had stood some days. Three litres of healthy urine were divided into two equal parts. The one half was examined for sugar immediately; and the amount of sugar was 2*4 grains. The other half was left for twenty-five days, until it became feebly alkaline, and then the sugar was determined, and the amount was 1-9 grain. A loss within the limits of error in the method of analysis. These and many similar experiments are opposed to any acid fermentation; and when the formation of uric-acid crystals in the urine occurs, it may be taken as a proof that some free acid is secreted by the kidneys, and that this, sooner or later, has set free more or less uric acid from the acid urates in the urine. The longest time in which I have seen uric acid crystallize out has been eleven days, but usually the first, second, or third day after the water is made the crystals form, if they form at all; and the formation of these crystals is the only certain and delicate test of the presence of free acid in the urine. I had hoped that the form of the crystals, varying as it does so greatly, might enable me to determine the nature of the liberating acid ; but after a long series of experiments I can as yet come to no satisfactory conclusion in this respect. On the Symftoms of Excess of Acidity. As in diabetes, so in acidity, there are no symptoms when the disease begins. The over-acidity or the excess of sugar may come and go away without being observed. A little heartburn or a little urgency in passing water may last only for a few minutes, and be cured by nature as quickly as it was caused. Only when the skin or mucous membrane have become irritable by the continued action of the acid, do symptoms of acidity force themselves on the notice and G 2