52 + 
THOMPSON YATES LABORATORIES REPORT 
precipitate. The amount of coagulable proteid in almost any very severe case is 
extraordinary ; by the simple application of heat the solidification is often so great 
that the test tube can almost be inverted with safety. 
Ehriicb's ' diazo ' reaction. Albertini, 1 from an examination of one hundred 
and forty-two cases of yellow fever, found the reaction negative in one hundred and 
thirty. The test being made from the second to the tenth day of illness concludes 
that the reaction is not given in simple cases of yellow fever. 
Dr. Myers tested a number of cases, chiefly at the earlier stages of the fever, 
also with negative result ; some further cases which were examined also gave negative 
reactions during the first week. In two cases in which there was malarial infection and 
possible yellow fever as well persistently gave positive reaction up to the twenty-fourth 
and twenty-eighth days. Two cases of yellow fever, in which there was prolonged 
jaundice, gave a fine deep-purple on the addition of the sulphanilic mixture ; this 
gave place to a good crimson on adding ammonia. Another case, with highly icteric 
urine, gave a deep-claret colour, which bleached to a dirty brown with ammonia. 
Several other deeply jaundiced urines failed to show either of these phenomena ; it 
may be added that many urines were tested at the same time so as to control one 
another ; a dozen malarial cachectics also gave negative results. It may be concluded 
that the test is of no value for the diagnosis of yellow fever. 
D. Kidney, Spleen, etc. 
Kidney. The histological examination of the kidneys of the specimens is rather 
suggestive that the anuria is caused by an actual plugging of the tubules, and the 
hyaline class of cylinder seems to be especially abundant in the cases where the bladder 
was noted as absolutely empty at autopsy. In other instances (as No. n), where the 
bladder was found full, although there is much disorganization of the kidney cells 
and a good deal of granular contents in the tubules, there was a marked paucity of 
condensed material in the form of definite casts. The casts seen at the bend of the 
Henle's loops look particularly likely to become hitched and cause obstruction. 
Moreover, the tubules and capsules shew signs of dilatation, as if there had been 
distension of a mechanical nature ; and compared to a specimen hardened under the 
same conditions, in which the cause of death was due to some kind of focal liver 
infection and not yellow fever, and in which thjre was no kidney mischief, the 
glomeruli seem plump and nearly fill the capsules, the glomeruli in the anuric yellow 
fever cases are shrunken and withered and their nuclei often irregular. Whether, when 
anuria sets in, it would be possible to dislodge the plugs by some method of massage, 
so that they might be assisted to pass along the tubules, and whether too much 
bruising would be caused by such treatment of an already damaged organ, the 
I. Albertini, Rvcista de medicina tropical Hiibana, vol. I, 1900, p. 86. 
