MEDICINE. 



amber colour usually, but it may be pale or dark. 

 A dark-coloured urine is a concentrated urine, 

 containing a smaller proportion of water to solid 

 constituents than one which is light coloured. 

 Sometimes the urine, when held up in a glass 

 vessel between the eye and the light, has a smoky 

 appearance from the admixture of blood. When 

 the urine is dark green, and has a greenish lustre 

 on the surface when agitated, it contains bile. 

 Diabetic urine is usually pale, and has a peculiar 

 sweetish odour, like that of newly mown hay. 

 Sometimes, when the urine cools, a sediment or 

 deposit falls to the bottom of the vessel. This 

 deposit consists of urates of potash or soda salts 

 always found in healthy urine, of which there may 

 be an excess excreted. As they are more soluble 

 in hot than in cold water, the urine is clear when 

 passed ; but on cooling to a temperature of 50 F. 

 or so, the urates which exist in excess of that 

 soluble in the amount of fluid are deposited as a 

 sediment. Deposits of urates may be nearly 

 white, but they are usually pink coloured. On 

 heating the urine, the deposit is at once dissolved. 

 Urates may be found in excess after or during 

 slight derangements of digestion, or after feverish 

 attacks, or during recovery from severe inflamma- 

 tions. When urine is allowed to stand exposed 

 to air, it ferments, and acquires a strong and 

 disagreeable ammoniacal odour, while there is a 

 deposit usually of a whitish colour. This deposit 

 consists of phosphate of lime, and of a salt called 

 the triple phosphate of ammonia and magnesia. 

 In some diseases, such as inflammation of the 

 bladder, or during paralysis, the urine is passed 

 in this ammoniacal condition. Such a state 

 of matters requires medical advice. Excessive 

 acidity of the urine is characterised by producing 

 a hot, burning sensation when passed. Such 

 urine changes the colour of a bit of blue litmus 

 paper to an intense red. Acidity usually arises 

 from some error in diet, such as eating too much 

 animal food, and is readily removed by the use of 

 fresh vegetables, and by drinking barley-water or 

 tea. 



Inflammation of the bladder is a severe disease. 

 There is pain over the lower part of the body ; 

 a constant desire to pass urine, which is voided 

 in small quantities ; and there are severe con- 

 stitutional symptoms, such as fever, sickness, and 

 depression of spirits. The employment of a hip- 

 bath, or the application of a large moist linseed 

 poultice over the lower part of the abdomen, will 

 give relief till a medical man arrives. The lining 

 membrane of the bladder is liable also to chronic 

 inflammation, frequently caused by the presence 

 of a calculus or stone in the viscus, for which 

 surgical advice is necessary. 



V. DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTF.M. 



The nervous system may be divided into the 

 Brain, the Spinal Cord, and the Nerves. 



I. The Brain This important organ is covered 

 by several membranes called the meninges, which 

 serve for protection and for the distribution of 

 blood. These membranes may become acutely 

 inflamed, constituting a disease known as menin- 

 gitis. This serious affection is ushered in by 

 severe pain in the head, irritability of temper, 

 intolerance of light, delirium, and high fever. 

 There is constant vomiting or retching, even after 



the stomach has become quite empty. The tongue 

 is clean, and there is usually obstinate constipa- 

 tion. Matters go from bad to worse, till the 

 patient sinks into a state of profound insensibility, 

 caused by the pressure of fluid on the surface of 

 the brain, and death terminates the disease. This 

 affection may be caused by incautious exposure of 

 the head to the sun's rays, by blows on the head, 

 or by the extension of inflammation from disease 

 of the internal ear. The symptoms of inflamma- 

 tion of the substance of the brain itself are very 

 similar to those just described, and the result is 

 death. 



There is a form of meningitis in children of a 

 delicate type of constitution, which unfortunately 

 is common in this country. It is called tubercular 

 meningitis, because it is caused by the deposition 

 of tubercle in a portion of the membranes covering 

 the base of the brain. Sometimes it is termed 

 acute hydrocephalus. It occurs in children under 

 five years of age ; and it is most important for 

 parents to be acquainted with the premonitory 

 symptoms, because it is only during the very early 

 stages of the disease that there is any hope of 

 saving life. Usually, the child is badly nourished. 

 There is irritation of the temper, inability to bear 

 a full flood of light, slight feverishness, a dry skin, 

 vomiting, and loss of appetite. The child seems 

 to be afraid of falling from its mother's arms, prob- 

 ably from a feeling of giddiness, and prefers to lay 

 its head on her shoulder. When in bed and 

 asleep, it rolls its head from side to side on the 

 pillow, and grinds its teeth. The tongue is furred, 

 and the motions from the bowels are offensive 

 and dark. There is frequently constipation. In 

 these circumstances, parents should, without delay, 

 summon the doctor. It is too serious a complaint 

 to allow an hour to pass without medical help. 

 The children of scrofulous parents should have 

 cod-liver oil given as a food (a tea-spoonful twice 

 daily) at any time when nutrition is imperfect 



Water in or on the brain, or hydrocephalus, is a 

 disorder caused by the accumulation of serum in 

 one or other of the cavities in the brain termed the 

 ventricles ; or the fluid may be on the surface of the 

 organ. The quantity of fluid varies from a few 

 ounces to several pints. When large, the bones 

 of the skull are so displaced by distcntion as to 

 cause the cranium to become globular, and the 

 protruding forehead overhangs the small and often 

 wasted face. The body is also much emaciated. 

 The treatment of these cases is not hopeful ; but 

 still, surgeons have succeeded in saving life. 



Apoplexy is the name given to that condition in 

 which a man suddenly falls down insensible, as if 

 by a blow. It may be caused in various ways, 

 such as the sudden rupture of a vessel in the brain, 

 and consequent pressure on the brain-substance 

 by effused blood ; the sudden interruption of con- 

 tinuity of nerve-substance in the brain, by soften- 

 ing ; or the plugging up of a vessel in the brain by 

 a small clot carried in the circulation from perhaps 

 a distant part of the body. The symptoms arc : 

 loss of consciousness ; a full, strong, sometimes 

 intermittent pulse ; slow snoring breathing ; a dull, 

 glassy, staring eye; and a cold clammy skin. 

 Patients often survive one, or even two attacks of 

 this nature, but always with impairment of intel- 

 lect, and partial or complete loss of motion, and of 

 sensibility of the upper and lower limbs on one side 

 of the body. What is to be done when an attack has 





