1887.] Prof. G. Stewart on Albumen from Kidneys. 247 
Of 63 soldiers about to start for their weekly march of from seven 
to ten miles in heavy marching order, 18, or 29 per cent., were found 
to have albumen in their urine. After their march the urines of 
58 of these men were examined, and 11, or 19 per cent., showed 
albumen. The march out, therefore, distinctly diminished the 
albuminuria. But as the march is taken in the forenoon, it occurred 
to me that some of those who got rid of their tendency during the 
march might have had a temporary albuminuria induced by break- 
fast. I therefore examined the urine of 32 soldiers before breakfast, 
after breakfast, and on their return from the march. It was found 
that before breakfast albumen was present in 5, or 15 ‘6 23 per 
cent.; after breakfast in 13, or 40625 per cent.; and after the 
march in 9, or 28425 per cent. It was noticed also that in several 
cases the amount of albumen diminished, although it did not wholly 
disappear. It was thus shown that in a considerable proportion of 
cases the march removed the dietetic albuminuria, and other obser- 
vations which I have made justify the conclusion that the march 
out exerts a favourable influence. It must, however, be observed 
that in some cases the march induced albuminuria. In one of the 
nine cases it occurred only after the march, the urine having been 
quite free from albumen on rising and after breakfast, and in at least 
one other case the amount of albumen was distinctly less after 
breakfast than it was after the march. It is thus clear that the 
effort of marching is sufficient to induce the symptom in some 
people. 
But while marching proved on the whole beneficial, the fatigue 
duty of coal-carrying brought out a very different result. This work, 
as carried on in Edinburgh Castle, obliges two men to carry a bucket 
containing 80 lbs. of coal for several hundred feet up a rather steep 
incline, and then up barrack stairs to the different floors. Each pair 
of soldiers makes six or seven such journeys during the forenoon in 
which they are told off to this duty. Of 36 soldiers engaged in 
this work we found that 16, or 44 per cent., had albuminuria before 
the labour commenced ; while 23, or 64 per cent., had albumen at the 
end of it. On another day, when we were able to get the urine of 
17 men engaged in this coal-carrying, 7 had albuminuria, equal to 
a little over 41 per cent., although the observations were made, not 
at the end, but in the course of their work. 
