ITS ABNORMAL CONSTITUENTS, 427 



kidneys. In such a case it would be quite possible to diagnose 

 fatty degeneration of the kidneys from an examination of the 

 urine. 



By instituting a very careful examination, we may also some- 

 times find fat-globules in the urine in diseases which are accom- 

 panied with rapid emaciation; as, for instance, in certain diseases 

 of the liver, and in those conditions with which hectic fever is 

 associated. 



We need hardly observe that sugar occurs in diabetic urine ; it 

 is, however, the quantity of sugar that is present which con- 

 stitutes the characteristic sign of diabetes mellitus. It has been 

 generally believed that sugar is also often found in urine which 

 is not diabetic (Lersch*), but no very great weight should be 

 attached to such an opinion, for the methods which have been 

 employed for the discovery of sugar are open to many fallacies ; 

 even Trommer's test, when applied with every possible precaution, 

 may give no decided reaction even when sugar is unquestionably 

 present in urine ; while conversely it may, in inexperienced hands, 

 easily lead to the belief that sugar is present when in reality it is 

 absent. It has been already mentioned (in vol. i., p. 289), that 

 Prout and Budge have found sugar in the urine of gouty and 

 dyspeptic persons, and that I detected it in the urine of a woman 

 shortly after delivery ; and I have the greater reason for believing 

 that the results of these observers are correct, from the circum- 

 stance that I have very recently found sugar (by applying the 

 method described in vol. i,, p. 285) in the urine of a man with very 

 acute gout. 



Numerous cases have been recorded in which abnormal pig- 

 ments have been found in the urine ; the colour of the brick-dust 

 sediments in febrile urine is unquestionably not dependent on the 

 normal urine-pigment, although it may possibly arise from its 

 oxidation ; at all events, we very often see the ordinary urinary 

 sediment (urate of soda) on the filter, of a deep brick-dust or 

 scarlet colour ; it has not been further examined ; and at different 

 times it has received the various names of rosacic add, uroerythrin, 

 and purpuric acid. Blue, green, violet, and black pigments are, 

 upon the whole, of rare occurrence in the urine. We have already 

 spoken (in vol. i., p. 319) of the pigments which Heller has ex 

 hibited from the urine ; unfortunately, however, his expenmei 

 were so incomplete, that the very existence of such pigm 



* Baier. medic, Correspondenzbl. 1846. S. 534. 



