SWEAT. 109 



sweat of a person suffering from hectic fever. After an attack 

 of acute rheumatism, the joints of the feet remained swelled, 

 for which potash-baths were ordered. These baths, in the 

 course of three weeks, brought on an attack of eczema, extending 

 as high as the knee. The sweat from the feet had then a de- 

 cided odour of acetic acid, which became more strongly developed 

 when they were sharply rubbed. Anselmino 1 found free acetic 

 acid in the sweat of women during their confinement; and, ac- 

 cording to Stark, the quantity of free lactic acid is increased 

 in the sweat during scrofula, rachitis, and certain cutaneous 

 eruptions. 



2d. The ammonia of the sweat may be increased. Anselmino 

 found a larger proportion of (free ?) ammonia in the sweat after 

 an attack of gout than in any other case. Berend 2 states that 

 the sweat in putrid and typhus fever is ammoniacal; and in 

 nervous diseases (?), according to Nauche, 3 it becomes alkaline. 

 All sweat with a putrid odour probably contains free ammonia. 



3d. The salts may be increased. Prout 4 observed that in the 

 case of a man with dropsy the skin became covered with a white 

 saline crust of chloride of sodium, after an abundant perspira- 

 tion. Anselmino found in the sweat, after a severe attack of 

 gout, more salts than usual. In cases of gouty and urinary 

 concretions, the quantity of phosphate of lime appears to be in- 

 creased. 



c. Abnormal constituents may be present in the sweat. 



1st. Albumen has been observed by Anselmino in a critical 

 sweat, which broke out in large quantity one evening over the 

 whole body in a case of febris rheumatica, with severe pains in 

 the joints ; on the following day it had disappeared. Stark 

 asserts that albumen may be found in the sweat in gastric, 

 putrid, and hectic diseases, and also on the approach of death, 

 in consequence of the abnormal solution of the solid constituents. 

 I failed in detecting any certain indications of albumen in 

 sweat collected (by means of linen washed with distilled water) 

 from the breast of a person in the colliquative stage of tubercular 

 phthisis. 



1 Tiedemann-'s Zeitschrift, vol. 2, p. 223. 2 Vorlesungen iiber Semiotik, p. 388. 

 3 Stark, p. 1127. " London Med. Gaz. vol. 15, Oct. 1834. 



