Contribution to the pathology of puerperal eclampsia / by J. Braxton Hicks.

  • Hicks, J. Braxton (John Braxton), 1823 or 1825-1897.
Date:
[1867]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contribution to the pathology of puerperal eclampsia / by J. Braxton Hicks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Dr. Richardson, namely, that ammonia was found in the blood.* The experiments of Petroffa,f however, show that the quantity of carbonate of ammonia increases gradually after the extirpation of the kidneys according to the time elapsed. This, however, cannot be considered as proof that urea de¬ composes into carbonate of ammonia in the blood-vessels, inasmuch as it only shows that the kidneys carry off ammonia, as we well know they do under the form of urate of ammonia, which would otherwise accumulate in the blood. Hence, in the present state of our knowledge, I hold that it would not be incorrect to say that it is not probable, when death takes place after ablation of the kidneys, that it is not in consequence of decomposition of urea into carbonate of ammonia. It is not here disputed that carbonate of ammonia, when injected into the veins, produces convulsions; but unless a great excess of it in the blood could be proved, clearly it would not be the agent in producing the symptoms of ursemic poisoning. Those writers upon the subject who have, without any experiments of their own, assented to Frerich’s theory, must not, of course, be taken as evidence of any value in support of the theory; yet these writers, from the deserved reputation, have done much to give establishment to it, as the names of Professors Braun, Stokvis, Feldmann, &c., testify. The larger number of writers on the subject of puerperal convulsions, however, have apparently assumed that albu¬ minous urine is a proof of the existence of uraemia. Whether it be so or not is a most important question, as albumen forms, in fact, our only ready means of diagnosis in practice. * Lehmann lias doubts as to the existence of ammonia in fresh healthy blood. He has detected it in acute diseases. He says, also, that urea in health is present in so small a quantity, that it is only recently that he had been able to convince himself of its presence, f Virchow, ‘ Archiv,’ xxv, p. 91, 1862.