ACTION ON TISSUE CHANGE. 63 



That in anasarca, especially from heart disease, digitalis acts as a 

 diuretic. (2) That it sometimes, but not always, acts as such 

 even in health. (3) That when it acts upon the intestinal canal 

 so as to cause vomiting and purging, or when it affects the pulse 

 so much as to cause intermittence, and possibly before this 

 takes place, diuresis is much lessened, though a moderate degree 

 of retardation may coexist with diuresis. (4) That in large doses 

 it causes suppression of urine, lasting in the human subject for 

 three days. 



On the composition of the urine, Stadion,* having put him- 

 self on a weighed diet of bread, butter, milk, and eggs, and 

 determined the normal amount of his urine and of its con- 

 stituents, took digitaline for 18 days, beginning with 2 milli- 

 grams, and daily increasing the dose by 1 milligram, 

 found that the urine was not only diminished in quantity, but 

 its specific gravity and chief solids were also diminished. The 

 acid reaction was unaltered, but the urea, chloride of sodium, 

 phosphates, and sulphates were lessened, and the uric acid in- 

 creased. Urea was determined by Liebig's method, after the 

 elimination of phosphoric and sulphuric acid and chorine, and 

 the uric acid by Neubauer's method. He draws the conclusion 

 that it causes rapid wasting of the body, and depression of the 

 exchange of material. 



Winogradoff,t from observations made for five days on several 

 healthy persons of all ages, while taking from -^q- to |- of a 

 grain in the 24 hours, found that there was no marked increase 

 in the total quantity of urine, and in one case a diminution. 

 In every case there was a falling off in the quantity of urea 

 and chlorides and salts which resist calcination, but there was 

 invariably an increase of the phosphoric and sulphuric acids. 

 The results which I obtained will be seen from the following 

 table, and the tables in the Appendix : — 



* Stadion, Year 'BooTc Sydenham Society, 1862, p. 451. 

 t Year Booh Sydenham Society, 1862, p. 452. 



