OF ALBUMINURIA. 17 



diminishing, the value which might otherwise be 

 attached to albuminous urine as a test of the pre- 

 sence, and even of the degree of renal congestion. 

 They may be briefly stated to be comprised in those 

 cases in which pus or other albuminous matter is 

 suspended in the urine from inflammation of some 

 part of the genito-urinary mucous membrane. Thus 

 it has been found more or less albuminous in cases 

 of old and severe stricture, in a bladder inflamed and 

 irritated by a calculus, during the passage of a cal- 

 culus down the ureter, and would probably present 

 the same character if examined in the acute stage of 

 gonorrho3a ; but it must also be remembered that 

 these affections will each ultimately tend to produce 

 renal congestion and irritation, so that in old cases it 

 will sometimes be a doubtful point to determine 

 whether the albumen is derived from the inflamed 

 mucous membrane or from the kidney. 



A diseased condition or unnatural fluidity or 

 tenuity of the blood, as in scurvy, or that peculiar 

 condition of the vessels which induces excessive 

 haemorrhage from slight causes, and which has been 

 found hereditary in some instances, may each cause 

 the presence of albumen or blood in the urine. 



Considerable importance has been attached to the 

 low specific gravity of the urine, as characteristic of 

 granular disease : in the acute form its density is at 

 least equal to that of health, and it is only in the 

 advanced stages of the chronic form that the propor- 

 tion of solids contained in it is materially reduced. 

 Some relative deficiency may be referrible to the 

 fact of the quantity of water in which they are sus- 



c 



