MOEBID CONDITION OF THE URINE 



345 



Albumen. — This substance is not a constituent of healthy urine, al- 

 tliough it is sometimes found as a temporary contamination. When exist- 

 ing as a permanent condition it is a matter of serious importance, inasmuch 

 as it indicates the existence of organic disease of some part of the urinary 

 apparatus, most frequently the kidneys. 



Albumen is recognized by adding to a small quantity of the suspected 

 urine, in a test-tube, a few- 

 drops of nitric acid, when the 

 albumen, being coagulated, fiills 

 to the bottom of the glass as a 

 grayish Hocculent deposit. Boil- 

 ing also produces the same effect. 



Mucus. — The whole of the 

 urinary channels being lined l)y 

 mucous membrane, it is not re- 

 markable that mucus should be 

 found in healthy urine. Some- 

 times, however, it exists in such 

 amount as to render the fluid 

 thick and ropy, and to impart to 

 it the consistence of thin glue. 



This condition is not neces- 

 sarily associated with serious organic disease, but rather with a state of irri- 

 tability of the urinary organs generally. It is most frequently seen in old 

 animals, and especially mares. When submitted to microscopical exami- 

 nation the urine in these cases is found 

 to contain small mucous corpuscles en- 

 tangled in a sticky fluid, together with 

 a number of fine filaments studded with 

 minute granules of carbonate of lime. 

 The latter are derived from the kidney, 

 and represent casts of the urine tubes 

 in which they have been formed. 



Casts. — In addition to mucous casts, 

 just referred to, others of various com- 

 position are met with as the result of 

 inflammatory disease of the kidneys. 



Of these some are composed of epithelial cells in various stages of decay, 

 shed from the inner surface of the urine tubes; others are formed of 

 blood corpuscles either alone or mixed with, or enclosed in, epithelial 

 cells, while others are structureless and wax-like (fig. 143). 



Fig. 143, 



us casts. B, Small waxy clear casts, c, Casts with 

 it and oil globules. D, Large granular casts 



Fig. 144.— Cr>stals of Oxalate of Lime from 



