646 URINE. 



If the consumption of the proteins of the body is increased, then 

 the elimination of nitrogen is correspondingly increased. This is found to 

 be the case in fevers, after poisoning with arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, 

 and other protoplasmic poisons, and when there is a diminished supply 

 of oxygen as in severe and continuous dyspnoea, poisoning with carbon 

 monoxide, hemorrhage, etc. In these cases it used to be considered that 

 the rise in the excretion of nitrogen was due to an increased elimination 

 of urea, because no exact difference was made between the quantity 

 of urea and of total nitrogen in the urine. Recent researches have con- 

 clusively demonstrated the untrustworthiness of these observations. 

 Since PFLUGER and BORLAND have shown that 16 per cent of the total 

 nitrogen of the urine exists under physiological conditions in other com- 

 pounds, not urea, attention has been called to the relation of the 

 different nitrogenous constituents of the urine to each other, and it has 

 been found, under pathological conditions, that this relation may vary 

 considerably, especially in regard to the urea. We have numerous 

 determinations by different investigators, such as BORLAND, E. SCHULTZE, 

 CAMERER, VOCES, MORNER and SJOQVIST, GUMLICH, BODTKER, FoLiN, 1 

 and others, on the relation of the different nitrogenous constituents to 

 each other in the normal urine of adults. SJOQVIST has made similar 

 determinations on new-born babes from 1 to 7 days old. From all these 

 analyses we obtain the following figures (A for adults and B for new- 

 born babes) . Of the total nitrogen there exists : 



A. B. 



Per Cent. Per Cent. 



Urea 84-91 73-76 



Ammonia 2-5 7.8-9.6 



Uric acid 1-3 3.0-8.5 



Remaining nitrogeneous substances (extractives) . . . 7-12 7.3-14.7 



The variable relation between uric acid, ammonia, and urea 

 nitrogen in children and adults is remarkable, since the urine of chil- 

 dren is considerably richer in uric acid and ammonia, and considerably 

 poorer in urea, than the urine of adults. A much larger number of anal- 

 yses of children's urine is necessary to explain the division of the nitrogen 

 therein. The absolute quantity of urea nitrogen in adults amounts to 

 about 10-16 grams per day. In disease the proportion of the' nitrogen- 

 ous substances may be markedly changed, and a decrease in the quan- 

 tity of urea and an increase in the quantity of ammonia have been 



1 Pfluger and Bohland, Pfiiiger's Arch., 38 and 43; Bohland, ibid., 43; Schultze, 

 ibid., 45; Camerer, Zeitschr. f. Biologic, 24, 27, and 28; Voges, Ueber die Mischung 

 der stickstoffhaltigen Bestandtheile im Harn, etc, (Inaug.-Diss. Berlin, 1982), cited 

 from Maly's Jahresber., 22; K. Morner and Sjoqvist, Skand. Arch. f. Physiol., 2. 

 See also Sjoqvist, Nord. med. Arkiv., 1892, No. 36, and 1894, No. 10; Gumlich, Zeitschr. 

 f. physiol. Chem., 17; Bodtker, see Maly's Jahresber., 26; Folin, Amer, Journ. of 

 Physiol., 13; Osterberg and Wolff, Journ. of biol. Chem., 3; Haskins, ibid., 2. 



