Chemical Physiology and Pathology. 537 



quantity of imperfect excrementitious forms of proteine and 

 its compounds, and assumes a threefold division of diatheses 

 into the uric acid, the oxalic acid, and the phosphoric acid. 

 By the uric acid diathesis he understands that con- 

 dition of the organism which in urine is followed (in conse- 

 quence of less proteine being oxidised than is wanted for the 

 formation of urea) by a continued and excessive deposit of 

 uric acid, free, or united to a base. The cause of excessive 

 formation of uric acid is either an absolute diminution of the 

 quantity of oxygen assumed by the body, or the proteine 

 must share the inhaled oxygen with the articles of food which 

 are free from nitrogen (as fat, starch, sugar, alcohol and 

 spirituous drinks,) which are converted into carbonic acid, 

 and carried off by the respiration. The devouring of much 

 animal food containing proteine, and of rich dishes, and the 

 use of spirituous drinks along with an easy mode of life with 

 diminished exercise, and diminished assumption of oxygen, are 

 assigned as the predisposing causes of the uric acid diathesis. 

 Its remedies are thus obvious. These views are however by 

 no means generally received. Out of the uric acid dia- 

 thesis, a secondary one, the oxalic acid, develops itself at 

 times. In this case, the oxidation of the substances to be ex- 

 creted goes a stage further, but still falls short of the normal 

 one. Dr. Bird considers the oxalic acid diathesis, which he 

 believes to be more common than is usually supposed, a variety 

 of azoturia, in which the kidney converts part of the urea or 

 of its elements into oxalic acid. In calculi we often find 

 concentric layers of urate of ammonia, and of oxalate of lime 

 alternating, which have been formed according as the patient 



has varied his mode of life. As to the phosphoric acid 



diathesis, Jones divides it into the true and the false : in the 

 first, in consequence of the general condition of the body the 

 urine is alkaline, and the phosphates are deposited : the false 

 one again depends on disease of the urinary organs themselves, 



