On the pathology and treatment of acute rheumatism : being the Lumleian lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians in 1853 / by James Alderson.

  • Alderson, James, 1795-1882.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathology and treatment of acute rheumatism : being the Lumleian lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians in 1853 / by James Alderson. 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.

    15/114 (page 9)
    In the first instance, I wish to observe for a mo- ment on the circumstances under which the analyses of the fluid can be effected. In regard to the blood:—^There is no difficulty in obtaining a correct analysis of healthy blood, be- cause the necessary quantity can be obtained from a number of individuals, and the aggregate of analyses can be taken; but in disease, when the blood of one individual only can be available, a sufficient quantity cannot be taken to examine all the various consti- tuents separately. This accounts for the incomplete analyses as regards the minor constituents. In regard to the urine:—There is a great discre- pancy, even by the most able chemists, in the analysis of healthy urine—a discrepancy which arises accord- ing as they use fluid which has been passed at par- ticular times of the day, or that which presents the average of twenty-four hours, the nature, as is well known to you, differing according to the time. In regard to both fluids, I would observe that no very exact inferences can be deduced, unless they be from analyses, made by the same individual, of both healthy and diseased fluids. In regard to the urine in acute rheumatism, the principal results arrived at, from a number of quan- titative analyses, consist in the preponderance of uric acid and of urates, chiefly urate of ammonia, over the proportions found in the healthy state. The m-ea is either increased or at the normal average.