436 Suigular Case of a Man [June, 



-6 

 Article VI. 



Account of a angular Case of n Mart who vomited a urinous 

 tabled Liquid. By W. Reid Claniiy, M.D. M. R. I. A. Hon. 

 Member of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, and Phy- 

 sician to the Sunderland Dispensary, 



As I understand that at present a controversy is carried on in one 

 or two of the London Medical Journals, upon the singular subject 

 of a female who was supposed to vomit her urine, I beg you will 

 give a place, in your Anncds of Phlsosophy, to the case of Ralph 

 Cooper, who lately became a patient of mine in the Sunderland 

 Dispensary ; which may perhaps throw some light upon a subject, 

 which has long before this time attracted the attention of medical 

 men; and from the very interesting information which your Journal 

 has afforded upon the chemical analysis of animal fluids, particularly 

 of those of the human body, I hope the following case will not be 

 unacceptable to your numerous learned readers. From my not 

 having as yet read the controversy which I hint at above, it will 

 readily be granted, that the communication which I am now about 

 to make will be found as disinterested as it is authentic. 



Ralph Cooper, set. 24, 

 Ph. Pulmonalis et anasarca. Admitted May 27, 1313. 



This young man is well formed but delicate. His feet and legs 

 arc much swelled and hard ; the urine is in very small quantity and 

 high coloured; the pulse is frequent and quick in the beat. He is 

 tormented by a severe cough and purulent expectoration ; and not 

 long since the sputum was mixed with l)lood, and frequently the 

 luemoptysis has been severe. By the use of digitalis purpurea in 

 substance; suj)ertart. potassic; diluted sulphuric acid, and occa- 

 sional opiates and laxatives, he has been greatly relieved, though 

 the relief is not permanent ; for the least exposure to cold or damp 

 produces a return of all his bad symptoms. 



It is not needful to record here the daily and weekly practice ; 

 as it would not only greatly enlarge the communication, but also 

 distract the attention from that particular phenomenon to which I 

 wish to draw the readers. I was called to visit him upon the I '2th 

 of December, when he informed me tjiat from the medicines 

 which I had ordered him he was so much relieved, that he consi- 

 dered himself as restored to health, and that a few days before he 

 had been working very hard as a caster of coals upon the river 

 Wear, which had produced a return of his former complaints to a 

 much greater degree than hitherto. His legs and thighs are consi- 

 derably swelled, the abdomen is much distended, and shows all the 

 symptoms of ascites abdominalis. The urine does not exceed a pint 

 in quantity, which is very high coloured, and upon cooling a latcri- 



