172 THE BLOOD IN DISEASES OF THE KIDNEY. [BOOK I, 



Aii analysis of the blood drawn during life and of that collected after 

 death gave the following results : 



Blood drawn Blood collected 



during life. after death. 



Water in 1000 parts 744-6 757-7 



Total solids 2554 242-3 



I -g (Neutral Fats l-ina 9 ' 86 ) 



I 1 ^Lecithin j L 1-55V 13-55 

 gfg (Cholesterin 1'96 2-14) 



II. J, T., a man 32 years of age, was admitted into the Royal Infirmary 

 on 3rd Nov. 1879, suffering from diabetes. He appeared very ill and 

 exhaled a very intense ethereal odour. At this time there were no 

 symptoms of dyspnoea or coma. The urine contained sugar and was of 

 high specific gravity. On the night after his admission he was seized with 

 purging, and in the morning he appeared very ill; his breathing then 

 became laboured and had the characters of diabetic dyspnoea. In the 

 course of the day he became unconscious, and he died shortly after midnight 

 on the 5th Nov. The urine which was passed on the 4th contained, besides 

 sugar, some albumin and many hyaline casts. 



At the post-mortem examination the blood was found to possess the 

 acetone (?) like odour. Some was collected and analysed with the following 

 results : 



Ethereal extract of 1 000 parts of Blood 1-88 parts. 

 Cholesterin contained in ethereal extract 0'642 



The amount of the ethereal extract obtained from the blood in case I. was 

 much larger than has been found in any published analyses of human blood. 

 Thus the mean amount of fat (including under this term all the constituents 

 of the ethereal extract of blood, viz. neutral fats, cholesterin and lecithin) 

 found by Becquerel and Rodier in. their numerous analyses was 1 -6 parts, 

 the maximum being 3'25 and the minimum 1-00 per 1000 parts of blood. 



In published analyses of the blood of diabetics by 0. Schmidt, the 

 amount of fat was respectively 1-82 and 2-13 per 1000; in these cases 

 however, there was no diabetic coma. Hoppe-Seyler l also mentions that he 

 found the proportion of fat materially increased in the blood in four cases 

 of diabetes. 



G. THE BLOOD IN DISEASES OF THE KIDNEY. 



There is probably no class of diseases in which a change in the 

 chemical composition of the blood is so soon induced as in Bright's 

 disease, or exerts a more marked influence upon the exchanges of the 

 matters of the organism. 



The fundamental knowledge which we possess on this subject was 

 mainly acquired by the classical investigations of Christison a which 



1 Hoppe-Seyler, Physiologische Chemie, p. 482. 



3 Christison, "Observations on the variety of Dropsy which depends on diseased 

 kidney." Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, Vol. 32 (1829), p. 262. 



Christison, "On granular degeneration of the kidneys, and its connection with 

 Dropsy, Inflammation and other diseases." Edinburgh, 1839. 



