238 THE SECRETIONS: 



The urine, in both cases, was of a pale-yellow colour, faintly 

 acid, somewhat turbid, and deposited a sediment of epithelium 

 mixed with the tubes already described ; in the course of eight 

 hours there was also a considerable deposit of uric acid. The 

 specific gravity of the former urine was 101 1*6, and the secre- 

 tion contained in 1000 parts : 



Before the After the 



paroxysm. paroxysm. 



Water . . . .942-0 931-3 



Solid residue . . . 58-0 68-7 



Urea . . .7-6 4-5 



Uric acid with mucus . . 2-6 5-2 



Alcohol-extract with salts . . 19-5 20-5 



Water-extract with earthy phosphates 10-1 21-9 



Albumen . . 17'9 17'0 



In the second specimen there was a very large quantity of 

 mucus.] 



With respect to the analysis of very albuminous urine I must 

 again refer to page 184, and I would expressly remark that the 

 urine must be treated with absolute alcohol for the determi- 

 nation of the albumen and the urea, since we obtain inaccurate 

 results in attempting to determine the urea from the evaporated 

 solid residue. For the determination of the uric acid we must 

 employ hydrochloric acid pretty freely diluted with water ; it 

 must be added carefully, in order not to precipitate any albu- 

 men. When blood occurs in the urine, we must adopt a pre- 

 'cisely similar course. 



Albuminous urine has now been so frequently observed in 

 numerous diseased states of the organism independent of Bright's 

 disease, that the idea has long been abandoned that granular 

 degeneration of the kidneys always occurs when we have albumi- 

 nous urine : the presence of albumen in the urine is, however, in 

 no case a favorable symptom, and invariably indicates serious dis- 

 ease : I once, however, found a considerable quantity of albumen 

 in the urine of a blooming and apparently quite healthy young 

 man, and the only cause to which its presence could be assigned 

 was that he had suffered from intermittent fever six years pre- 

 viously. There are various conditions under which this con- 

 stituent may be present. During a catarrho-rheumatic affection 

 I once observed a little albumen in my morning urine, but in 

 the urine secreted in the middle of the same day not a trace 



