398 URINE. 



urinary passages, but more especially in Bright's disease, in all the 

 stages of which they have been found. If the urine be acid, the 

 blood-cells remain for a long time without being decomposed, 

 or at most become somewhat jagged ; they are usually somewhat 

 swollen, and approximate to the spherical form, being in general 

 paler than in their ordinary condition, although still characterised 

 by a strongly defined outline. The salts contained in the urine are 

 probably the cause of their not assuming the nummular arrange- 

 ment. 



Large accumulations of fibrin only occur in the urine in acute 

 inflammations of the kidneys or urinary ducts, and then always 

 in association with blood-corpuscles. 



When the urine is not perfectly fresh, it is found on examina- 

 tion frequently to contain certain organised matters, which may 

 be classed among vegetable substances, or infusoria. These are 

 gradually developed in the acid urine, and more especially in the 

 mucous sediment, from which, as it would appear, there are formed 

 certain microscopic filamentous fungi, which are very similar to 

 the mykoderma cerevisiae, differing only in being considerably 

 smaller (-$\-Q to a-h/")* having a spherical rather than an oblong 

 shape, and a distinct eccentric, round nucleus. They appear to be 

 developed precisely in the same manner as the yeast-fungi; when 

 the urine begins to lose its acid reaction, they may be observed 

 upon the surface of the fluid, and probably contribute towards the 

 formation of the membrane with which it is frequently found to be 

 covered. The more complex vegetable organisms are not formed 

 until the urine has begun to be alkaline ; when we may observe 

 numerous confervoid filaments, with or without spores, which 

 often form a dense network, whose separate threads are commonly 

 seen to extend over the whole field of view, even when examined 

 with low powers. 



Infusoria may always be detected in the urine after it has 

 become alkaline : the form usually present is the ordinary filamentous 

 or rod-like vibrio (vibrio lineola?}, although moving molecular 

 specks are also observed, which Hofle* regards as the monas termo 

 of Ehrenberg. 



We have already mentioned, at p. 136, that Heller seems on 

 one occasion also to have found the sarcina ventriculi of Goodsir 

 in the urine. f 



* Chera. u. Mikr. Nachtrage, S. 159. 



f [Heller has since recorded a second case. See Arch. f. China, u. Mikros 

 New Ser. Bd. i., S. 30. A similar case has also been met with by Dr. Mackay. 

 See Bennett's " Introduction to Clinical Medicine," 2nd ed., p. 96.- G. E. D.] 



