On the diseases of the kidney : their pathology, diagnosis, and treatment; with an introductory chapter on the anatomy and physiology of the kidney / by George Johnson.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the diseases of the kidney : their pathology, diagnosis, and treatment; with an introductory chapter on the anatomy and physiology of the kidney / by George Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    107/540 (page 91)
    the desquamative process continues, the ‘ granular casts’ are mixed with epithelial casts and blood-cor- puscles,* which clearly indicate the character of the disease; and the cessation of the desquamation is quickly followed by the disappearance of all sediment, a diminution of the albumen, and a subsidence of the more urgent symptoms; while in cases of chronic desquamative disease, the granular casts, unmixed with entire epithelium, or with epithelial casts, are continually present, and the condition of the urine varies but little from day to day. There is yet another modification of the casts and epithelium, which requires particular notice. Very frequently, after an attack of acute desquamative disease has continued beyond a period of two or three weeks, some of the epithelial cells which are scattered through the urine, or entangled in the casts, will be seen to contain oil globules, some cells having two or three globules within them, and others being quite filled with them, so as to appear almost black; at the same time some of the casts will be found to have oil globules on their surface; these, probably, having escaped from some of the ruptured cells. These appearances are represented in fig. 24, chap. vii. When I first observed this condition in a case of acute renal dropsy, I was apprehensive that the kidneys were undergoing fatty degeneration, and I, accordingly, gave a very unfavourable prognosis, which the result of the case, happily, did not verify. * In the fourth chapter there will be found an explanation of the comparative rarity of hsematuria in cases of chronic renal disease.