(y 
Bis 
248° Experiments on Urine: ; 
believe that the coagulable part of the ferum, when perfeetly 
pure, does not afford it at all. We fhall only further yes 
mark, that the method by fermentation, fo much relied 
upon by fome, is by no means correét. he , 
From what has been delivered it muft be evident, that 
an attentive examination of the urine may lead to ufeful 
conclufions in feveral difeafes, . 
In dropfy, the general difeafe may readily be diftinguifhed 
from that depending on morbid vifcera, by attending to the 
effects produced on this fluid by nitrous acid and the cor- 
rofive muriat of mercury, In three cafes which we have 
lately met with, the urine coagulated not only on the addi- 
tion of nitrous acid, but likewife by heat; and, in one of 
them, which proved fatal in fix weeks, the urine appeared 
to differ but little from the ferum of the blood, fo remark- 
able was the coagulation produced by heat and acids. This 
coagulable ftate, however, muft not be confounded with that 
produced by cantharides ; for we have feen fome cafes of 
violent ftrangury from this caufe, where the urine had the 
appearance of hydatids *. 
In the dropfy proceeding from difeafed liver and other 
morbid vifcera, the urine does not coagulate either by ni- 
trous acid or heat: it is ufually fmall in quantity, high 
coloured, and depofits, after ftanding, a confiderable quantity 
of pink-coloured fediment. This peculiar fediment we con- 
fider as, in fome meafure, characteriftic of difeafed or rather 
{cirrhous liver, Qn examination we found that it confifted 
of a phofphat of lime, fome animal mattef, to which its red. 
eolour was probably owing, and a little lithic acid ; this laft, 
however, was in very {mall quantity. 
In inflammatory affections, particularly thofe of the 
cheft and acute rheumatifm, the urine, during the active 
fiate of the difeafe, always affords an immediate precipitate 
with the corrofive muriat of mercury or alum, and fome- 
® The infufioa of galls likewife coagul: ates this fpecies of urine. 
times 
