ITS QUANTITATIVE RELATIONS, 447 



point is the first of the questions propounded by Lecanu, whether, 

 when the kidneys are secreting an excess of water after copious 

 drinking, they, at the same time, separate an excess of solid con- 

 stituents ; Lecanu answers this question in the negative, although 

 my own experiments lead to an opposite conclusion, as do also 

 those of Chossat* and Becquerel. 



This is obviously a question to be settled by bedside 

 experience; we can hardly, however, agree with Becquerel in 

 believing that it will explain the mode of action of many diuretics. 



Before proceeding to enumerate the quantities of the solid 

 constituents of the urine which are daily secreted, I must not 

 omit to mention the very great differences between the statements 

 of those who have investigated this subject. This difference 

 depends only in a very slight degree on the different methods of 

 chemical investigation and calculation ; it is mainly due to the 

 individuality of the different persons, we might almost say of the 

 different nations, on whom the experiments had been instituted. 

 On comparing the urinary analyses that have been made by 

 experimentalists in the three great nations, we perceive that, 

 generally speaking, far the least solid constituents are found in the 

 urine of the French, and that they are especially deficient in urea 

 and uric acid, that the Germans very far exceed the French in 

 these respects, while again the English pass even larger quantities 

 than the Germans. One of the principal grounds of this difference 

 is, no doubt, to be sought in the difference of diet, and in the 

 varied modes of life of the three nations. It is well known that 

 the French take very little animal food, and live generally with 

 great moderation, while the English use highly seasoned animal 

 food so abundantly that Proutf not unfrequently met with 

 specimens of urine from which nitrate of urea at once crystallized 

 on the addition of nitric acid, a circumstance that would hardly 

 occur to a genuine German urine, to say nothing of French 

 specimens. From statistical data it appears that any given 

 number of Londoners eat six times as much animal food as an 

 equal number of Parisians. Besides the nature of the food, there 

 are doubtless other, although probably less influential causes for 

 such differences, as, for instance, the general mode of life in other 

 respects, the climate, &c. 



With regard to the solid constituents which are daily separated 



* Journ. de Physiol. T. 5, p. 65. 



f [We are not aware that Prout lias described any cases in which he has 

 seen healthy urine undergo this change. G, E. D. 



