A dictionary of practical medicine: comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases, morbid structures, and the disorders especially incidental to climates, to the sex, and to the different forms of life : with numerous prescriptions for the medicines recommended, a classification of diseases according to pathological principles, a copious bibliography, with references, and an appendix of approved formulae : the whole forming a library of pathology and practical medicine and a digest of medical literature (Volume 9).

  • Copland, James, 1791-1870.
Date:
1834-59
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of practical medicine: comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases, morbid structures, and the disorders especially incidental to climates, to the sex, and to the different forms of life : with numerous prescriptions for the medicines recommended, a classification of diseases according to pathological principles, a copious bibliography, with references, and an appendix of approved formulae : the whole forming a library of pathology and practical medicine and a digest of medical literature (Volume 9). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    far exceed in quantity the insoluble salts, and are derived directly from the food, as well as from the albumen and other elements of the blood. The insoluble phosphates, forming part of the structure of the body, and derived from the blood during the process of nutrition, are conveyed back to the blood during the metamorphosis and waste of the structures, and are eliminated by the kidneys. Some portion of the phosphoric acid of the urine is in all probability generated from the action of oxygen on many of the structures of the body, into the composition of which phos- phorus largely enters, as the brain and nervous system generally. But the greatest part of the phosphoric acid is derived ready formed from without; the phosphates of lime and magnesia abounding in milk and most varieties of vegetable food ; while the basic alkaline phosphates exist in flesh, in wheaten flour, leguminous seeds, as beans, peas, &c. The interesting researches of Dr B. Jones have shown that the quantity of phosphates, in a given quantity of urine, bears some relation to the periods of taking food, and to the nature and composition of the food. He found the quantity of phosphatic salts to be much greater after a diet restricted to vegetable, than to animal food. The quantity of phosphates of lime and magnesia in the urine is considerably increased after the ingestion of soluble salts of these two earths. The alkaline phosphates are most abundant shortly after a meal composed chief- ly of oread, and are not materially affected by the circumstances which influence the excretion of the earthy salts. A part only of the earthy phosphates contained in the food is absorbed into the circulation, the greatest proportion escaping by the intestines. Berzelius found in three ounces of human faces six grains of earthy phos- phates. The insolubility of the salts in water ac- counts for their presence in the faeces. A small quantity of phosphorus also exists in the urine in a non-oxidized form. The excess of phos- phoric acid often found arises from the oxidation of the phosphorus of the urine. 33. k. The quantity of sulphuric acid in the urine is too great to be accounted for by its pres- ence in the food as saline combinations ; and sul- phuric acid has been found in the urine while food quite free from sulphates has alone been taken. According to G. Bird and Mulder, the origin of this acid is to be referred to the oxidation of the sulphur which exists with phosphorus in those tissues which contain albumen and fibrin. Dur- ing the metamorphosis or waste of tissues, oxi- dation of the sulphur occurs, and explains the presence of at least a portion of the sulphuric acid met with in the urine. The existence of more than twenty per cent, of sulphur in taurine—one of the products of the metamorphosis of bile— accounts for a portion of the sulphuric acid, by referring it to the oxidation of the biliary sulphur during the recrementitious offices of bile in the economy. As a portion of sulphur is excreted from the body in a non-oxidized form, a part only of the sulphur not required for the purposes of the animal economy undergoes oxidation. Pro- fessor Ronalds found, in five specimens of urine of healthy persons, the proportions of sulphuric acid, and of the non-oxidized sulphur, existing in 1000 grains, to be as follows: 106; 0 17—146; 018—142; 018—2 44; 0 153—132, 0 165. 34. Dr. Bence Jones has shown, by his inter- esting researches connected with the subject, that the salts of this acid are increased in the urine by any kind of vegetable or animal food ; that exer- cise does not appear to increase them, nor the administration of sulphuric acid, unless in large quantities ; and that the ingestion of sulphur, or of the sulphates of soda or magnesia, always greatly augments the quantity of the sulphuric salts in the urine. . 35. /. The chloride of sodium of the urine is obviously derived from the common salt taken with the food. Some of the saline constituents of the urine may be readily recognised by the crystalline forms they present when the urine is evaporated on a glass plate. MM Regnault, Reiset, and Burral have shown that the chloride of sodium increased the excretion of nitrogen, as evinced by the augmentation of urea and the ni- trogenized compounds in the urine It may be inferred that common salt produces salutary ef- fects : 1st, by furnishing hydrochloric acid to the stomach ; 2d, by furnishing soda to the bile , 3d, by aiding the metamorphoses of the blood glob- ules and of the tissues ; and, 4th, by promoting the depuration of the blood The absence or diminution of chloride of sodium in the urine of patients labouring under pneumonia, noticed by Redtenbacher, was attributed to the alteration of diet during this disease. But Dr. Lionel Beale has established the following propositions, which show the insufficiency of this explanation : 1st. Chloride of sodium is totally absent from the urine of pneumonic patients at the period of com- plete hepatization of the lung. 2d. The chloride reappears after the resolution of the inflammation. 3d The chloride exists in the blood in the largest quantiiy when most abundant in the urine, and vice versa 4th. The chloride exists in very large quantity in the sputa of pneumonic patients. 5th. There is reason to believe that the chloride in pneumonia is determined toward the inflamed lung, and is reabsorbed and removed on the res- olution of the inflammation. {Transactions of Medical and Chirurgical Society, vol. xxxv., p. 374, &c.) I may, however, remark that the quan- tity of chloride in the expectoration is increased beyond that existing in healthy pulmonary mucus, and is diminished in the urine, in acute bronchitis, in pleurisy, and in phthisis, although not so re- markably as in pneumonia. 36. III. The Formation of Urinary Depos- its.* Et seq.—When the several constituents * Clinical Examination of the Ueinf.—Dr. Goir>- IN« Bird lias given the following recommendations for ascertaining the state of the urine in disease, provided that it be an average specimen of that passed in the pre- ceding twenty-four hours, or that resulting from the first micturition after a night's rest, unless the urine secreted at other times he required. A. Ui ine without Deposit, or poured from the Sediment. —After ascertaining the acid, alkaline, or neutral states of the urine by means of test-papers, a little of the urine should be heated in a metallic spoon over a lighted can- dle, or in a test-tube over a spirit-lamp ; and if a deposit occurs, albumen or an excess of the earthy phosphates is present; the former if a drop of nitric acid does not re- dissolve the deposit, the latter if it does. If the urine be very highly coloured, and be not rendered opaque by boiling, the colouring matters of bile or purpurine are present. To determine this, pour a thin layer of urine on the back of a white plate, and allow a few drops of nitric acid to fall in the centre; an immediate and rapid play of colours, from bluish-green to red, will he ob- served, if bile; but no such change will be observed if purpurine alone exists. Should the high-coloured urine alter in colour or transparency by heat, the presence of blood should be suspected. If the addition of nitric acid to deep-red urine, unaffected by heat, produces a brown deposit, an excess of uric acid exists. If a specimen of urine be pale, immerse the gravimeter, and if the spe-