URINE. 1053 



1.0125, but it occasionally rises to 1.030; it is acid from free 

 lactic acid. On standing it deposits a slimy mucus, and after a 

 time, when stale, becomes alkaline from the formation of carbo- 

 nate of ammonia. The latter salt is produced from the urea, 

 which is accompanied in urine by a minute quantity of a fer- 

 menting principle, which occasions this transformation. Urine 

 in its usual condition contains from 7 to 8 per cent of solid 

 matter, the rest is water. Its characteristic constituents are 

 urea (page 993) and uric acid (page 1002); the former is free 

 or in combination with lactic acid, the last in an unknown 

 combination. 



Besides its usual saline constituents, the urine may contain in 

 solution various bodies drawn by the kidneys from the blood. 

 Many salts, such as nitrate of potash, ferrocyanide of potas- 

 sium, pass through the circulation and are thrown off by the 

 urine unaltered ; so also are the organic acids, tartaric, oxalic, 

 &c. when free ; but the salts with alkalies of the same acids ap- 

 pear in the state of carbonates, and render the urine alka- 

 line. 



M. Lecanu has obtained some valuable results respecting the 

 proportions of these substances in the urine of man, as affected 

 by age and sex, which he deduces from a series of 120 analyses 

 of urine. 



He found that the quantity of urea passed in twenty-four 

 hours, is in grammes (1 gramme = 15.44 grains troy) : 



Minimum Mean Maximum 



By men. . . 23.155 28.0525 33.055 



By women. . . . 9.926 19.1165 28.307 



By old men (84 to 86 years). . 3.956 8.1105 19.116 



By children of eight years. 10.478 13.4710 16.464 



By children of four years. .3.710 4.5050 5.300 



The quantity of uric acid discharged is, like the urea, sensi- 

 bly the same for the same individual in equal times, but varies 

 much in different individuals. This difference was found to be 

 in the twenty-fours, 0.362 to 1.343 grammes in the male adults, 

 0.229 to 0.652 in the old men, 0.394 to 0.907 in the women, and 

 0.198 to 0.32 in the children. (Journ. de Pharmacie, XXV, 681 

 et 746). 



