PRODUCTS, ADVENTITIOUS. 



91 



delicate membrane; these productions form 

 within the laminae of the capsules of the joints 

 of the hands and feet, sometimes in the sur- 

 rounding cellular membrane, and least com- 

 monly in the tendons. Their substance has a 

 chalky look on section. 



Their chemical constitution was first made 

 out by Fourcroy and Wollaston ; most cor- 

 rectly by the latter. Urate of soda forms 

 their main saline constituent ; with this is as- 

 sociated urate of potash and lime in small 

 quantity, chloride of sodium in good propor- 

 tion, and animal matter. 



A gouty calculus from the metacarpus of a 

 man aged only twenty-two, examined by 

 Lehmann, presented innumerable four-sided 

 prisms, arranged in stellar groups, consisting of 

 urate of soda. The composition was as fol- 

 lows : 



Urate of soda 52.12 



Urate of lime 1.25 



Chloride of sodium 9.84 



Phosphate of lime 4.32 



Cellular tissue 28.49 



Water and loss 3.88 



The abundance of urate of soda in these 

 calculi is a very remarkable feature in their con- 

 stitution ; and points to the probability of that 

 salt existing in the blood of gouty patients. 



(m.) Cutaneous. The natural secretion of 

 the sebaceous glands may be retained within 

 those sacs in consequence of accidental closure 

 of their orifices. And if the saline materials 

 predominate much over the organic, either as 

 a fault of original secretion or from inspissa- 

 tion, a concretion is the result. Epithelium 

 and fatty matters of various kinds are always 

 associated with the saline materials. These 

 saline materials, which vary much in their 

 per-centage quantity, are mainly phosphate 

 and carbonate of lime. 



SUB-CLASS II. ANIMALIZED PRECIPITATES. 



The distinctive character of products of this 

 sub-class is, that they are exuded ready formed 

 from the vessels ; when (ceasing to mix with, 

 or precipitated from, the blood) they appear as 

 "products " outside the vessels, they possess 

 as much of the attributes of organization as 

 they are ever destined to acquire. The ele- 

 ments composing them are organic ; but these 

 elements are either by nature incapable of 

 forming structure, (as sugar, oils,) or circum- 

 stances deprive them of the power they natu- 

 rally possess of developing a structure (as cer- 

 tain protein-compounds) : they are distinctly 

 non-plastic. 



The animal substances enumerated, when 

 exuded from the vessels, always form (what 

 may be called) potentially the material of pre- 

 cipitates ; but circumstances occasionally pre- 

 vent the actual formation of these. The 

 morbid process essentially consists in exuda- 

 tion (secretive or other) from the bloodves- 

 sels this is the theoretical precipitation. It 

 would be a needless refinement to make a 

 subdivision of actual precipitates and non- 

 precipitated potential precipitates. 



I. PROTEIN-COMPOUNDS. When oc- 



curring as actual precipitates, the protein- 

 compounds appear as minute microscopical 

 particles, amorphous or granular ; they absorb 

 readily the ioduretted solution of iodide of 

 potassium, and become of yellowish brown 

 colour; they are insoluble in aether, altered 

 but not dissolved by acetic acid, insoluble in 

 mineral acids, and dissolved by maceration in 

 caustic alkalies. 



(A.) Albumen. Of the so-called protein- 

 compounds albumen is by far the most fre- 

 quently observed as an adventitious product 

 belonging to the present division. It is either 

 (a) thrown off with certain secretions (of which 

 it forms no part in the natural state ;) or (6) 

 it is retained in a structureless or non-organi- 

 zable condition. 



(#.) Albumen in the secretions. Of these 

 the most important is the urine. This fluid, 

 as discharged from the bladder, is found, in a 

 considerable variety of local diseases or general 

 derangements of the system, to be impreg- 

 nated either temporarily or more or less per- 

 manently, either slightly or abundantly, with 

 albumen.* The various conditions under 

 which this impregnation occurs were classed 

 several years ago by us in the following man- 

 ner ; the advance of knowledge has in the 

 intervening period rendered scarcely any 

 change necessary. M. Martin- Solon's term 

 Albuminuria may be conveniently used to 

 signify the discharge of albuminous urine ge- 

 nerally; but cannot be logically used as a 

 synonym of (nor even as a convertible term 

 for) the affection known as " Bright's 

 Disease." 



Albuminuria may be caused by 



First: An unnatural state of the blood. Se- 

 condly: Morbid states of the genito-urinary 

 organs, either functional or organic, and when 

 organic, either causing albuminous impreg- 

 nation during, or subsequently to, the act of 

 secretion. Thirdly: Accidental admixture of 

 genital products. Fourthly : Some cause hi- 

 therto unestablished. A few remarks on these 

 various conditions are absolutely called for. 



First : Albuminuria from an unnatural state 

 of the blood. Dr. Blackall, in his work on 

 dropsies, has related cases of scorbutus and 

 petechiae in which the urine was coagulable ; 

 but as the condition of the kidneys was not 

 inquired into, the narratives are unsatisfac- 

 tory. M. Rayer-f-, however, states that he has 

 found the albumen and red corpuscles of the 

 blood pass occasionally into the urine in cases 

 of scurvy, purpura, and haemorrhagic fevers ; 

 while the fibrin diminishes in the vessels, and 

 the watery portion becomes infilti ated into the 

 cellular tissue, or exhaled on membranous sur- 

 faces. Traces of albumen were discovered by 

 Heller J in the urine of a girl aged nineteen, 



* Some chemists believe that urine naturally 

 contains albumen, though in proportion so small as 

 not to be reached by existing means of analysis ; 

 among these chemists rank Henry, Chevalier, and 

 Dumas, (Le9on sur la Chimie Statique des etres 

 organises, p. 39.) 



f Maladies des Reins, t. i. 



I Archiv. fur Chemie, Bel. i. S. 12. 



