1813.] 



Experiments on Urine. 



27 



Article IV. 



Experiments on the Urine discharged in Diabetes Mellitus^ 

 ivitk Remarks on that Disease,^ By William Henry, 

 M.D. F.R.S. 



In the analysis of the urine voided in diabetes, a few circum- 

 stances appear not to have been determined with the degree of 

 precision which the subject admits, and which it is desirable to 

 attain ; though calculated, perhaps, rather to have an influence 

 on the pathology of the disease, than on its medical treatment, 

 in consequence of the recent occurrence of two cases of diabetes 

 mellitus under my own care, and of other opportunities for 

 which I am indebted^ to my colleagues t in the Manchester 

 Infirmary, 1 have lately been enabled to examine several speci- 

 mens of this variety of morbid urine. The results, I am well 

 aware, do not present any facts of great novelty or importance. 

 Yet they may, perhaps, not be unworthy of being laid before the 

 Society ; since they contribute to furnish tests of the existence 

 of the disease, and of the degree in which it is affected by diet 

 or remedies, which are more easily applicable than those hitherto 

 employed. Without entering, therefore, at large into the chemical 

 history of diabetic urine, 1 shall limit myself to the description 

 of a few of its properties, to which I have particularly directed 

 my attention. 



I. Of the Specific Gravity of Diabetic Urine, and thie Propor- 

 tion of' its solid Contents, 



The specific gravity of the urine, discharged in diabetes 

 mellitus, has been left unnoticed by some of the best writers on 

 its chemical history, as Cruickshank, Nicholas and Gueudeviile, 

 and Thenard. In about ten cases where I have had an opportu- 

 nity of determining this property, it has never fallen short of 

 1028, nor exceeded 1040; 1000 parts of water at 60° Fahr. 

 being taken as the standard. This appears to agree very nearly 

 with the experience of the few writers who bave noticed its 

 relative weight, and especially of Dr. Bostock,| Mr. Dalton,§ 

 and Dr. Watt. j| The circumstance of specific gravity I consider 

 as a most useful test of the existence of diabetes in doubtful 

 cases; and, when the disease is unequivocal, taken along with 

 the actual^quantity discharged, it furnishes a good criterion of 

 tjie degree'of morbid action. IJealthy urine I have never found, 



* Read bpfore ihe Medical and Chirurgical Society, March 12, 1811. 

 + Drs. F^rriar, Bardsley, Holme, and Mitchell. 



X Med. Memoirs, vi. 241. \ Dr. Bardsky's Med, Reports, p. 161, 



I Gaees of Diabetes, &c. p„ 79. 



