Lectures on the influence of researches in organic chemistry on therapeutics : especially in relation to the depuration of the blood / delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, by Golding Bird.

  • Golding Bird
Date:
1848
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the influence of researches in organic chemistry on therapeutics : especially in relation to the depuration of the blood / delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, by Golding Bird. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the specific gravity ,f and the table I have given, the amount o excreted solids indi- cating so much metamorphosis of matter may be observed. I have not alluded to the influence of benzoic and cinnamic acids as depurating remedies, because I have in an early lecture alluded to their mode of action. I may re- mark, however, that their efficacy is by no means limited to the quantity of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, they sepa- rate in the form of hippurio acid, as first pointed out by Mr. Ure, but I find that they induce an increased metamorphosis of tissue, and the quantity of matters included under the vague term of extractive, remark- ably increases during the administration of benzoic acid. I may now be permitted to express the statements I have advanced in this lecture in the form of five propositions :— A. That a knowledge of the amount of solids escaping from the body in the urine will, independently even of their chemical composition, often enable us to detect a deficient function of the kidneys, although the bulk of the secretion may not be mate- rially affected. This can only be ascertained by . the plan now proposed. B. That whilst specific diuretics, as a rule, only increase the exhalation of water from the renal capillaries, the alkaline salts (chemical or alterative diuretics), on the other hand, when coming in contact, in the capillary circulation, with the nascent ele- ments of tissues or parts of low vitality, remarkably accelerate their metamorphosis and subsequent solution in the blood. C. That in certain diseases attended by caco-plastic or even saline deposits, before despairing of all aid from medicines, it would be well to try to effect their removal by the agents in question. D. That in the treatment of disease, the question ought often to be entertained whe- ther the ailment is not excited, kept up, or aggravated, by an unhealty condition of the blood, either by the actual existence of a materius morbi, or the presence of the re- sults of mal-assimilation. E. That when one or other indications be made out, great benefit may be often de- rived by aiding the metamorphosis and solu- tion of the morbid elements by the chemical diuretics (B), not administered with the view of separating mere water, but of aiding the excretion of solid elements of the urine. And now, sir, I have brought to a close my allotted task, and hope I have succeeded in shewing how close is the relation between the chemistry of living and dead matter,— how much this relation may elucidate even among the penetralia of therapeutical in- quiry,—and how probable it is that ere long our remedial agents may be more scientifi- cally and effectively wielded by this know- ledge. If I have been tedious, I can only offer the apology arising from the difficulties with which my subject is beset, and offer, in return, my sincere thanks for the atten- tion and consideration which has been so kindly and encouragingly extended to me. Wilson and Ogilvy, 57, Skinner Street, Snowhill, London.
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