262 THE SECRETIONS: 



tractive properties, as lias been clearly shown by the researches 

 of Becquerel ; for it is very poor in urea, and in that respect 

 resembles the urine in typhus, while it differs from the latter 

 in containing only a small quantity of uric acid, and a large 

 amount of fixed salts. 



I may perhaps be allowed to refer once more to the intimate 

 connexion subsisting between the action of the metamorphosis 

 of the blood-corpuscles (or of their development and vitality) on 

 the one hand, and on the production of urea on the other. 



The proportion of the urea to the solid constituents of the 

 urine in inflammatory diseases, in those forms of typhus which 

 assume a torpid character, and lastly in chlorosis, affords us 

 sufficient illustration of this connexion. 



In the form of typhus to which we have alluded, as well as 

 in chlorosis and anaemia, the urea is diminished ; but, as we 

 have already remarked, in that case the uric acid, which is a 

 product peculiar to febrile action, is increased, and the salts 

 (partly in consequence of the diet) are diminished ; while in 

 chlorosis, in which a nutritious nitrogenous diet is allowed, the 

 diminution of the urea plainly indicates that the seat of the 

 disease must be sought for in the production of the blood-cor- 

 puscles. 



I shall now give BecquereFs account of the chemico-physical 

 relations of the urine in chlorosis. 



The quantity of urine emitted in twenty-four hours amounts 

 to about 34 ounces. It is pale and of a greenish tint, and 

 only becomes dark when the urine is very concentrated : the 

 acid reaction is weak ; uric-acid sediments are seldom formed ; 

 when they do occur, they are of a white or gray colour. If, as 

 is not unfrequently the case, leucorrhoea is associated with 

 chlorosis, the urine is more or less turbid in consequence of the 

 mixture of the morbid product with it ; in these cases a little 

 albumen is generally observed. 



The quantitative analyses which Becquerel made of the urine 

 of chlorotic persons gave the following results : 



Anal. 1. Anal. 2. Anal. 2. 



Quantity of urine in 24 hours . 41-3 ounces 50-8 ounces 2 7'5 ounces 

 Specific gravity . . 1011-3 1012-6 1016-8 



