450 
DR. BENCE JONES ON THE VARIATIONS IN 
of solid residue in 1000 parts of urine of all specific gravities. But no tables admit 
of this calculation. They may perhaps be true for the total quantity of water in 
twenty-four hours ; but they are not so for the water made at any one period of the 
day. The water made before and after dinner, for instance, may have the same 
specific gravity, but the total quantity of solid residue in each may be entirely differ- 
ent. If the urine was a solution of any single substance such tables would be useful, 
but where there are many substances present in varying quantities at different periods, 
these formulae are inapplicable. 
In my previous paper I have shown, that in the healthy state the amount of earthy 
phosphates precipitable by ammonia depends chiefly on the amount of earthy matter 
taken into the body; the amount varying from '40 per 1000 urine, specific gravity 
1027'9, to T49 per 1000 urine, specific gravity 1030. 
I have also shown that the alkaline phosphates vary from 7’56 per 1000 urine, 
specific gravity 1027'9, to 5*77 per 1000 urine, specific gravity 1030. 
In the following paper I shall attempt to show that the earthy phosphates are sub- 
ject to such great variations, depending on the water, the food, and the medicine 
even, that from their estimation alone no result can be arrived at. I shall then give 
the total amount of earthy and alkaline phosphates in diseases, in which the nervous 
tissues, or their neighbouring tissues, are affected. 
1. In diseases of the spine ; from accidents, caries, paraplegia. 
2. In diseases of the membranes and chronic diseases of the brain. 
3. In fractures of the bones of the skull. 
4. In acute diseases of the brain. 
5. In functional diseases of the brain ; as violent delirium and delirium tremens. 
6. In insane patients. 
I shall lastly, for comparison, give the amount of earthy and alkaline phosphates 
in some diseases in which the nervous tissues may be considered as unaffected. 
1. In acute diseases; as acute rheumatism, gout, fever. 
2. In chronic diseases, as Bright’s disease ; diseases in which very small quantities 
of water are secreted; scrofulous diseases, exostosis and mollities ossium. 
