636 
Tests  for  Albumen  in  Urine. 
PERCENTAGE  OF  MORPHINE. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Dec,  1884. 
E.  Merk. 
Aust.  Pharm. 
Godeffroy. 
v.  Perger. 
4*17* 
1-63* 
9-04 
5-99 
2-04* 
0-507* 
8-37 
5-567 
9  1 
9-32 
0-253* 
8-52 
11-0 
1-72 
0-3* 
1-17* 
3-68 
13-57 
9* 
1 
8-42 
14-75 
— Jour.  Chem.  Soc,  1884,  p.  1218;  Jour,  prakt.  Chem.  [2],  xxix, 
p.  97. 
[Note. — The  extraction  of  morphine  by  macerating  opium  or  its  prepa- 
rations with  water  and  large  excess  of  baryta  was  recommended  by  F.  F. 
Mayer  in  "Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,"  1863,  page  387.— Editor.] 
REMARKS  ON  TESTS  FOR  ALBUMEN  IN  THE  URINE, 
NEW  AND  OLD.1 
By  George  Johnson,  M.D.,  F.R.S., 
Professor  of  Clinical  Medicine,  Senior  Physician  to  King's  College  Hospital. 
In  a  paper  on  the  above  subject  in  the  recently  published  Man- 
chester Medical  Chronicle,  Dr.  William  Roberts,  referring  to  the  fact 
that  the  urine  in  health  contains  various  forms  of  albuminoid  matter, 
expresses  his  belief  that  the  new  tests  for  albumen  which  have  recently 
been  brought  into  prominence,  especially  picric  acid,  tungstate  of  soda, 
potassio-mercuric  iodide,  and  the  acidulated  brine-test,  "  produce 
frequently  in  the  urines  of  perfectly  healthy  persons  a  reaction  which 
is  undistinguishable  from  the  reaction  which  indicates  disease  or 
abnormality."  This  point  was  put  to  the  proof  by  the  examination 
of  the  urine  of  thirty-one  healthy  persons — students,  candidates  for 
insurance,  and  others,  who  exhibited  no  signs  of  disordered  health,  and 
in  whose  urine  heat  and  nitric  acid  gave  no  indication  of  albumen. 
Dr.  Roberts,  of  course,  needs  not  to  be  reminded  that  albumen,  in 
greater  or  less  abundance,  and  for  long  periods  of  time,  may  be 
unquestionably  present  in  the  urine  of  persons  who  exhibit  no  signs  of 
1  From  the  British  Medical  Journal,  October  11. 
