THE MICROSCOPE IN PATHOLOGY AND MEDICINE. 239 



health, but nervous patients are often deluded by quacks 

 on account of them. 



(5.) Accidental products. A great variety of things 

 may accidentally get into urine, and the observer must 

 guard against them by studying the appearance of various 

 objects in the microscope. Pieces of feathers, fibres of 

 wood, vegetable-cells, wool, cotton, silk, dust, etc., will 

 almost always attract the attention first of one unused to 

 them. 



(6.) Sarcinse are minute vegetable organisms, in the 

 form of cubes, often subdividing into groups of four or 

 their multiples. They were detected by Goodsir in the 

 stomach in a case of obstinate vomiting, and have been 

 occasionally found in urine. They seem associated with 

 some dyspeptic cases. 



(7.) Torulce. This fungus is developed in urine which 

 contains even minute traces of sugar. It is identical with 

 the yeast plant (see pages 135, 137). 



(8.) The penicillium glaucum, a fungus allied to the last, 

 commonly makes its appearance in acid urine when ex- 

 posed to the air. 



(9.) Yibriones. What was said at page 135 will readily 

 account for the presence of vibriones in decaying urine. 

 In perfectly fresh urine it may be regarded as a sign of 

 debility. 



(10.) Tube-casts. In many cases of congestion and in- 

 flammation a coagulable material is effused into the tubes 

 of the kidney, forming a cast or mould of the tube. This 

 may be ejected, bringing with it pus, blood, epithelium, 

 or other material with which it is associated. In Bright's 

 disease these casts, in addition to albuminous urine, as- 

 sume considerable clinical importance. In the acute form 

 of the disease the cylinders or casts are fibrinous, with 

 blood, mucus or pus-cells, and epithelium. Towards the 

 close the casts become homogeneous or hyaline. In chronic 

 desquamative nephritis the cylinders are without blood, 



