464 URINE 



find, on examining the bodies of patients who have died from 

 diabetes, that certain pathologico-anatomical changes are present; 

 but how widely do these differ in character ? As is well known, 

 tubercles are frequently present in the lungs in diabetes, and also, 

 in some cases, affections of the abdominal organs, the spinal cord, 

 &c. Sugar in the urine is therefore as much an incidental, incon- 

 stant accompaniment of tuberculosis as albumen in the urine is of 

 dropsy ; the former, like the latter, seems always associated with 

 definite conditions, such as we have endeavoured to explain in the 

 case of the albumen present in the urine in dropsy, but which we 

 are unable to explain in the case of the sugar contained in the urine 

 in tuberculosis. Dropsy, however, is as much a mere group of 

 symptoms as tuberculosis ; and we must leave it to a future era 

 in medicine to classify diseases in families and species according to 

 definitely expressed chemico- and physico -physiological processes, 

 instead of grouping them according to individual pathologico- 

 anatomical or chemical characteristics. 



After our remarks upon the constitution of the urine in the 

 recognised groups of disease, we think it would be superfluous to 

 enter upon the further consideration of the properties and com- 

 position of the urine, or the changes which this fluid experiences 

 in every individual disease ; for we have already, as far as the 

 present state of science permitted, classified the alterations oc- 

 curring in the morbid urine, in accordance with chemical modes of 

 arrangement. We must leave this subject for the present, trusting 

 that the attempts which will be made in our third volume to 

 discover the physiological processes in the healthy and diseased 

 animal organism from the .positive results of physical and che- 

 mical investigations of the animal tissues and juices, may con- 

 tribute towards the establishment of definite characteristics of the 

 urine as a means of classifying families and groups of diseases. 



Owing to the want of systematic investigations of normal and 

 abnormal urine, and the inconsiderable progress made in organico- 

 chemical analyses, a very high value was formerly attached to 

 the analyses of urinary concretions, and of calculi generally. 

 When considered from a scientific and pathological point of view, 

 we are as unable to admit the idea of a Lithiasis as of the above- 

 mentioned diatheses ; it lies entirely beyond the scope of our 

 inquiries. Moreover, the little that admits of being said regarding 

 the formation of these concretions may be readily inferred from the 

 observations we have already made in reference to urinary fermen- 

 tation. (See p, 412.) The analysis of these concretions falls either 



