520 A Hceinatozoon in Human Blood. [part hi. 



sections were subjected to microscopic examination, numerous translucent oil-like 

 tubules of a somewhat varicose appearance could be observed running alongside the 

 uriniferous tubes as if the lymphatics or minute blood-vessels of the part had become 

 plugged. These sections, when placed in boiling ether, and afterwards subjected to 

 prolonged maceration in it, did not appear to be materially affected by the process 

 — the translucent oil-like tubules being quite as evident as before. 



No other morbid changes could be detected as having taken place in either 

 the tubular or cortical tissue of the kidneys, but in every fragment, no matter from 

 what part of the kidneys removed, numerous microscopic Filarige were invariably 

 obtained, if the tissue had been properly teased, precisely analogous to those 

 which had been detected in the blood and in the urine during life. Teased 

 fragments of the supra-renal capsules yielded similar specimens. On slitting 

 open any portion of the renal artery, from its entrance into the kidney as far 

 inwards as I was able to follow its ramifications, and gently scraping its inner 

 surface with a scalpel, numerous Hsematozoa could always be obtained. The renal 

 vein when similarly examined also yielded specimens of the Filariae, but they did 

 not seem to be so numerous in it. 



The vessels themselves did not appear to be diseased, and such of the branches 

 as could be seen with the naked eye did not strike me as being abnormally large. 

 But whether the microscopic ramifications and the capillaries were distended or 

 otherwise (in the absence of properly injected preparations of the organs) could not 

 well be ascertained. 



Having traced the course of the Hsematozoon from the blood through its channel 

 into the urine, the peculiar appearances presented by this secretion will now be very 

 briefly considered. 



The chemical constitution of Chylous or milky-urine is so well known that it 

 is not necessary to do more than refer to the principal features which it presents. 

 It is, as the term applied to it conveys, more or less perfectly white, has a faint 

 odour of milk, which is heightened by warmth ; and, like that secretion, may be 

 passed through several layers of filtering paper without materially modifying its 

 colour. Usually it is of low specific gravity — from 1006 to 1018 — and manifests a 

 slightly acid reaction to test paper. As a rule, the more it approaches the appear- 

 ance of milk, the more readily and firmly does coagulation take place. When the 

 presence of blood is a prominent feature in it, curdling takes place still more 

 perfectly, but the early addition of solutions of ammonia, sulphate of soda, or 

 nitrate of potash retards if it does not completely prevent this change ; frequently, 

 however, the process has already commenced before the escape of the fluid from 

 the bladder. 



The elaborate analyses which have from time to time been made of the urine 

 in this condition, as well as such simple analyses as I have been able to conduct, 



