URINE. 155 



it is obvious that the acid reaction of healthy urine is purely 

 accidental, and that urine of an alkaline or neutral reaction 

 cannot be considered as a symptom of a diseased condition of 

 the body. All the vegetable aliments, without exception, 

 tubers, roots, and leaves, potatoes, turnips, greens, &c., contain 

 alkalies in combination with vegetable acids : potatoes, for in- 

 stance, contain alkaline citrates; turnips, alkaline racemates 

 and oxalates, &c. All these plants yield, upon incineration, 

 more or less strongly alkaline ashes, the bases of which were 

 contained in the living plants, as salts of vegetable acids. 



" It is obvious that by adding these vegetables to a meat 

 diet, to bread and to other aliments prepared from flour, the 

 nature of the urine must become thoroughly altered ; for the 

 alkalies which these vegetables contain in combination with 

 organic acids, enter the urine, in the form of carbonated alka- 

 lies, and neutralize the acids, of whatever kind, which may 

 be present. When partaken of in a certain proportion, they 

 render the urine neutral ; when partaken of in a larger pro- 

 portion they impart to it an alkaline reaction. 



" The urine of all animals feeding upon vegetables, such as 

 grass, herbs, roots, &c., has an alkaline reaction. The urine of 

 the horse, of the cow, of the sheep, of the camel, of the rabbit, 

 of the guinea-pig, of the ass, &c., is alkaline; it contains 

 alkaline carbonates, and acids produce in it a lively effervescence. 



" The acid, neutral, or alkaline reaction of urine of healthy 

 individuals does not depend upon any difference in the pro- 

 cesses of digestion, respiration, or secretion, in the various 

 classes of animals, but upon the constitution of the aliments, 

 and upon the alkaline bases which enter the organism through 

 the medium of these aliments. If the amount of these bases 

 is sufficiently large to neutralize the acids formed in the or- 

 ganism, or supplied by the aliments, the urine is neutral ; whilst 

 it manifests an alkaline reaction when the amount of alkaline 

 bases thus supplied to the organism is more than sufficient to 

 neutralize the acids ; but in all these cases the urine accords 

 with the nature of the aliments taken. 



" The inorganic bases and acids contained in the urine were, 

 with the exception of sulphuric acid, which joins them in the 

 organism, constituents of the aliments. The amount of inor- 

 ganic bases and acids emitted through the urine in twenty -four 



