URINE. 481 



In dropsy from diseased liver, the urine in general is not al- 

 buminous, but it is scanty, high-coloured, and deposits a pink 

 sediment. 



As the quantity of albumen increases in dropsical urine, that 

 of the urea diminishes, and is said even to disappear ; though 

 I have never examined any dropsical urine in which I was not 

 able to find traces of urea, 



7. During hysterical paroxysms the urine usually flows abun- 

 dantly, it is limpid and colourless, though the colouring matter is 

 not absolutely wanting. For when sufficiently concentrated the 

 usual colour of urine begins to be perceptible ; and I have always 

 been able to detect in it the presence of urea ; though the quanti- 

 ty is certainly much smaller than usual. 



It is well known that the most usual medicine administered 

 during chlorosis is protoxide of iron, prepared in various ways. 

 It has been generally admitted by physiologists, that the iron 

 passes into the system, and is employed in completing the glo- 

 bules of the blood which are defective in that disease, and that 

 the surplus is carried off by the urine. But M. Gelis has shown 

 that this plausible explanation is not well founded. He examin- 

 ed the urine of 80 patients labouring under chlorosis, and all 

 under a course of iron preparations ; but in none of these urines 

 could the least trace of iron be detected.* 



8. In syphilis the urine of a man who had been taking mer- 

 cury by means of the blue ointment, was found by Dr Cantu to 

 contain mercury. He mixed the precipitate from the urine with 

 carbonate of potash and charcoal powder, and distilled at a red 

 heat, globules of mercury were found in the receiver.f Cheval- 

 lier, who examined the urine of a syphilitic patient while under a 

 course of mercury, found it milky, of a slightly ammoniacal smell, 

 and giving out ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen. It was 

 mixed with clots of blood, and of course contained all the sub- 

 stances that exist in that complicated liquid, The constituents 

 of urine could also be detected.:]: 



9. The urine in a catarrhus vesica was examined by Fromherz 

 and Gugert. It was whitish and very muddy, had an acid re- 



* Jour, de Pharm. xxvii. 261. t Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. xxvii. 335. 



\ Jour, de Chim. Med. i. 179. Schweigger's Jour. 1. 204. 



nh 



