ANALYSIS OF THE URINE. 



35Î 



mine due to the medicinal agents (rhubarb, senna, tar) or biliary 

 coloring matters, etc. 



It has been maintained that it is sometimes impossible to make 

 the distinction between hematuria and hemaglobinuria, on the 

 ground that the red corpuscles might leave their coloring matters 

 in the urine in which they are held ; this assertion is weakened by 

 Franck's observations.^ This author has established the integrity 

 of the corpuscles in alkaline and acid urine eight days after mic- 

 turition ; it is only at the time when the urine becomes ammoniacal^ 

 in consequence of putrid fermentation, that the red corpuscles are 

 destroyed. In very concentrated urine the corpuscles become star- 

 shaped. 



The prognosis and treatment of hematuria vary with the disease 

 of which it is the expression. (See Nephritis, Cystitis, Vesical 

 Hemorrhage, etc.) 



2. Urinary cylinders (casts). These are generally tubuli- 

 /brm productions, more rarely full cylinders, formed by an albu- 

 minoid substance (albuminous cylinders) or by carbonate of lime,, 

 with mucus as the fundamental substance (calcareous cylinders). 

 They are derived from the renal canal iculi. 



The albuminous cylinders are sometimes hyalin, with a trans- 

 parent and homogeneous fundamental substance, at other times 

 granulous (fat, etc.). In certain cases we find cylinders called 

 " epithelial,'^ which are formed by the desquamated epithelium of 

 the renal canaliculi or by morsels of exudate covered with epithelial 

 cells ; in others the cylinders have a waxy aspect, and are formed 

 by a colloid mass, which is of high refraction. The albuminous 

 cylinders, especially the granulous and epithelial cylinders, indicate 

 nephritis most of the time ; in the horse, in the course of hemo- 

 globinuria, some are found which well deserve the name of hemo- 

 globin cylinders. The hyaline cylinders are seen in albuminuria, 

 the febrile diseases, and passive congestion of the kidney. 



3. Epithelial cells. The short, cylindrical, pigmented cells- 

 (yellow cells being absent), and also the round cells, which are rich in 

 protoplasm (renal epithelium), indicate an affection of the kidney ; 

 the pavement epithelial cells indicate vesical, urethral, or vaginal 

 catarrh; but these elements have a diagnostic value only when 

 found in large numbers. 



1 Franck : Adam's Wochenschrift, 1873. 



