402 URINE. 



inflammatory urine (whose specific gravity was increased) there were 

 more sulphates than in 100 parts of the normal (specifically lighter) 

 fluid of the same patient after his perfect restoration. There were 

 from 4'512 to 5 '842 grammes of the sulphates of potash and soda (all 

 the potash being calculated as combined with sulphuric acid) dis- 

 charged by these patients during the twenty-four hours, whilst the 

 urine discharged after recovery during the same period yielded from 

 4*974 to 6'5S2 grammes of the sulphates. Heller found the sul- 

 phates of the urine diminished in chlorosis, neuroses, chronic diseases 

 of the kidneys, and in affections of the spinal cord; but, as the urine 

 is generally very highly diluted in these diseases, we may conjecture 

 that Heller, in estimating the volume of precipitated sulphate of 

 baryta, may not have taken into account the large quantity of 

 water in the urine. In one case of decided chlorosis, 1 found 

 that 6*247 grammes of the sulphates of potash and soda \vere 

 discharged in twenty-four hours. 



The normal urine contains acid phosphate of soda, and not 

 the basic phosphate, as asserted by Heller, a fact that has 

 been clearly shown by Liebig.* (See vol. i., p. 440.) This salt in- 

 creases and diminishes, according to Heller, in nearly an equal 

 ratio with the sulphates ; Bence Jones,t however, once found them 

 to be considerably diminished in a case of cerebral inflammation. 



The phosphates of lime and magnesia occur in very various 

 quantities in the normal urine ; but where the food has been mixed, 

 there are generally about 1*093 grammes of the earthy phosphates 

 discharged by the urine in the twenty-four hours. The quantity of 

 this salt in the urine depends in a great degree upon the nature 

 and quantity of the food partaken of; that is to say, a much larger 

 amount is secreted when the food is purely animal than when a 

 vegetable diet is used. Thus, in my own case, w^hile I continued 

 for twelve days to live solely on animal food, I discharged, on an 

 average, 3*562 of phosphates in the twenty-four hours. The 

 quantity of phosphate of lime is often found to be considerably 

 diminished in the urine of pregnant women, as Donne.| has very 

 correctly stated, and this is especially the case from the sixth to 

 the eighth month of pregnancy; at the same time, the quantity of 

 the lime is scarcely diminished. Here also the nature of the food 

 may have exerted a special influence on the quantitative relations 

 of the earthy phosphates in the urine, as may be seen from analyses 



* Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 50, S. 161196. 

 ' t Plrilos. Transactions for 1846, p. 449. 



+_Gaz. m^d. de Paris, 1841. No. 22, p. 47. 



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