048 
the article Urza. The study of the multitu- 
dinous, intricate, great, and widely diversified 
changes which are made on the normal chemical 
composition of human urine by jaundice, dropsy, 
diabetes, inflammatory affections, and more or 
less by almost all other diseases which in any 
way affect the blood or the intestinal secretions, 
is an interesting example of the application of 
chemistry to the pathology and the practice of 
medicine, and has of late years been prosecuted 
to limits which have afforded valuable instruc- 
tion to even intelligent and highly experienced 
physicians; and the same kind of study might 
no doubt be pursued, with very eminent advan- 
tage, in veterinary medicine, 
Urine is employed in making phosphorus, sal- 
ammoniac, and carbonate of ammonia; and is 
mixed with the earths and composts of nitre 
beds; and, in a putrid state, is very useful in 
scouring woollens. But its grand use is in the 
capacity of a manure; and here it is vastly 
more valuable than most small cultivators or 
even many intelligent farmers are at all aware. 
Several of the most distinguished agricultural 
chemists have estimated that 90:9 parts of cows’ 
urine or 55°95 parts of human urine or 15'3 parts 
of horses’ urine ought to produce as great fer- 
tilizing effects as 100 parts of ordinary farm-yard 
manure; and Liebig relates that one hundred 
parts of wheat grown on a soil manured with 
cow-dung afforded only 11:95 parts of gluten 
and 62°3 parts of amylin or starch, while the 
same quantity grown on a soil manured with 
human urine yielded the maximum of gluten, 
namely 35°1 per cent., ornearly three times as much 
as the other. And although the expense of collect- 
ing urine manure and of conveying it to the 
field is considerably greater than that of collect- 
ing and carrying farm-yard manure, yet the dif- 
ference is more than counterbalanced by the 
general and uniform distribution of the fertiliz- 
ing principles upon the soil. But we have else- 
where discussed the whole question of economiz- 
ing and using urine as a fertilizer, either by 
itself, or in dilution with water, or in several 
methods of chemical preparation, or as a basis 
of compound liquid manures, or as an ingredient 
in solid or semifluid composts; so that, in the 
sequel of the present article, we need only to 
discuss separately the qualities of the chief 
kinds of urine which are at the farmer’s com- 
mand; and this we shall do principally with the 
aid of Dr. Sprengel’s Essay on Animal Manures. 
See the articles Liquin Manurs, Excrement, 
Manure, and Farm-Yarp MAnuRgE. 
The urine of cattle, when fresh, has a yellow 
colour, occasioned by a small quantity of resin- 
ous colouring matter; but on standing a longer 
time exposed to the air, it assumes a brown, and 
even, at last, a black colour. This is to be as- 
cribed to the formation of humic acid, from the 
organic bodies which are passing into decompo- 
sition. In summer, fresh urine of cattle always 
URINE. 
contains a portion of ammonia, while in winter 
it does not possess a trace of it; hence we see 
that in hot weather the urea, which is the prin- 
cipal source of ammonia, undergoes decomposi- 
tion while remaining in the animal body. Urine 
which has been exposed for a year and a half in 
contact with the air no longer contains any 
organic remains, but salts only, or mineral bo- 
dies dissolved in water; yet it is still endued 
with strong manuring properties. When urine 
is applied, in its fresh state, to living plants, 
it either speedily destroys them, or brings 
them into a sickly condition,—an effect result- 
ing partly from the excess of caustic ammonia 
which it contains, and partly from the decom- 
position of the urea. We therefore allow the 
urine to become putrid before making use of it, 
in order that the urea may be decomposed, and 
the caustic ammonia converted into the state of 
carbonate, humate, or acetate of ammonia. The 
urine of oxen has already been many times chemi- 
cally investigated; and its component parts are 
found naturally to vary, asin the case of solid 
excrementitious matter, according to the food 
given to the animal. Brande was the first who 
investigated it; and he found that 100 parts, by 
weight, were composed of 68 of water, 4 of urea, 
4 of carbonate of ammonia, 6 of sulphate of pot- 
ash, 15 of muriates of ammonia and lime, and 3 
of phosphate of lime. This analysis, however, is 
certainly incorrect; for there is never found in 
urine which still retains urea, and has, accord- 
ingly, undergone only a partial putrefaction, an 
amount of 32 per cent. of solid matter. When 
urine, on the contrary, stands exposed for a long 
time in contact with the air, the amount of water 
it contains is diminisied by evaporation, and the 
proportion of the solid matter becomes then na- 
turally greater. Now, such urine may probably 
have been that which Mr. Brande examined. 
He has, however, overlooked many other bodies 
occurring in this fiuid, particularly soda and 
lime. According to Sprengel’s more careful ana- 
lysis of the fresh urine of cows fed in a pasture 
abounding with good nourishing grass, several 
kinds of clover and vetch, a mixture of field fen- 
nel and plantain, much dandelion, hawkbit, and 
a great proportion of common daisy, 100,000 
parts, by weight, were found to be composed of 
92,624 of water, 4,000 of urea, along with some 
resinous colouring matter, 10 of albumen, 190 of 
mucus, 90 of benzoic acid or hippuric acid, 516 of 
lactic acid, 256 of carbonic acid, 205 of ammo- 
nia, 664 of potash, 554 of soda, 405 of sulphuric 
acid, 70 of phosphoric acid, 272 of chlorine, com- 
bined with soda, lime, and magnesia, forming 
salts, 65 of lime, 36 of magnesia, 2 of alumina, 4 
of oxide of iron, 1 of oxide of manganese, and 36 
of silica. But all the acids and the chlorine 
were in combination with the alkalies and the 
alkaline earths, forming salts. Cattle urine 
contains in winter very much less, often scarcely 
half the quantity of urea found in Sprengel’s 
