446 URINE. 



the urine in certain physiological and pathological conditions can 

 only be correctly determined when the quantities of the urinary 

 constituents daily secreted by the kidneys can be compared 

 together. We will, therefore, in the first place give the quanti- 

 tative relations which occur under different conditions in the collec- 

 tive urine which has been secreted within definite periods of time. 



Lecanu* found that sixteen persons of different ages and sexes, 

 but who all received a due supply of mixed food, passed in twenty- 

 four hours from 525 to 2271 grammes of urine; while Becquerel 

 found that the mean daily quantity passed by four men was 

 1267*3 grammes, whilst that by four women was 1371*7 

 grammes. Chambert, who made twenty-four observations on men 

 between the ages of twenty and twenty-five years, found that the 

 daily quantity of urine varied from 685 to 1590 grammes. In 

 experiments which were, for the most part, made in the summer, 

 I discharged, during a fortnight's strictly regulated diet, from 898 

 to 1448 grammes of urine daily ; during twelve days, on which I 

 lived exclusively on animal food, from 979 to 1384 grammes ; and 

 during a twelve days' course of vegetable diet, from 720 to 1212 

 grammes. 



We have already spoken of the dependence of the quantity of 

 water which is separated by the kidneys, on the amount of drink 

 that has been taken, and on the degree of transpiration. Unfor- 

 tunately, we have as yet no accurate experiments to demonstrate 

 the influence which each of these physiological causes exerts on 

 the amount of water that is separated by the kidneys. The facts 

 communicated by Julius Vogel,f who, for 189 days, weighed all the 

 food and drink that were taken by a person on whom he was 

 experimenting, show how much other influences, besides the fluids 

 that have been taken, modify the quantity of water in the urine. 

 Whilst on some days scarcely the third part of the fluids that had 

 been taken were carried off by the urine, on other days the 

 quantity of the urine equalled that of the drink, or even exceeded 

 it by one-twentieth, or even one-tenth. The largest quantity of 

 water was unquestionably discharged by the kidneys after the use 

 of a cold bath ; here there was not only suppressed transpiration, 

 but water was absorbed from without. 



It appears, from the observations of Chambert, that shortly 

 after a meal, less water, both absolutely, and relatively to the solid 

 constituents, is separated with the urine. Closely allied to this 



* Journ. de Pharm. T. 25, p. C81 et 746. 



t "Wagner's Pbysiol., S. 264 [or English Translation, p. 421]. 



