424 URINE. 



When albuminuria occurs in association with hectic fevers, 

 diabetes, diseases of the spinal cord, fyc., this symptom is depen- 

 dent either on the watery character of the blood, or, as is some- 

 times the case in diabetes, on an actual lesion of the kidneys. 



The cases are by no means rare in which persons with only 

 slight fevers, and unaffected by any other serious disorder, for a 

 short time secrete a urine that is more or less albuminous 

 (Becquerel,* C. Schmidt, t and others). Since we sometimes meet 

 with cases in which the urine is albuminous when there is perfect 

 health, and no cause can be assigned for its presence (Simon, J 

 Canstatt, Becquerel,|| and others), we are entitled to believe that 

 some persons are specially predisposed to this affection, that is to 

 say, that the facility with which the albumen escapes is dependent 

 on a peculiarity of their organisation. We must here also notice 

 the transitory occurrence of albumen in the urine during 

 pregnancy (Rayer,^[ Becquerel,**). As the oedema of the lower 

 extremities is closely allied to a varicose condition of the veins, so 

 the overloading of the blood-vessels in the abdominal organs 

 during pregnancy is probably a more efficient cause than any 

 other of the transudation of the albumen into the kidneys. 



We have already spoken of the occurrence of fibrin as an 

 abnormal morphological constituent of the urine ; and we remarked 

 that it was always found in cases of haemorrhage into the urinary 

 passages. Urine is, however, occasionally observed in which only 

 the intercellular fluid of the blood appears to have transuded ; in 

 some of these cases the fibrin becomes separated, after the 

 emission of the urine, either as a gelatinous mass, or in granular 

 clots or threads (Prout,tt Nasse,tJ Pickford, Hemrich||||). 



Casein has been particularly found in the so-called milky or 

 chylous urine : I have frequently had occasion to remark in the 

 preceding pages, how difficult it is to distinguish casein from basic 

 albuminate of soda and other protein- bodies. I have never been able 



* Semeiotique des urines, &c. P. 134. 

 f Charakteristik der Cholera. S. 117. 



I Lelirb. d. med. Chem. Bd. 2, S. 382 [or English translation, Vol. 2, p. 184.] 

 Pathologic. 2 Aufl. Bd. 2, S. 182. 



|| Op. cit., p. 324. 



ff Maladies des Reins. T. 2, p. 579. 



** Op. cit., p. 394. 



ft On the Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Renal Diseases. 1 848, p. 40, 



tj Unters. z. Physiol. u. Pathol. Bonn, 1835. S. 215, 



Arch. f. phys. Heilk. Bd. 6, S. 85. 



II !l Rhein. Mouatsschr. f. Aertze. Bd. 1, S. 24. 



