Selected monographs.

Date:: 1888

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

28/440 (page 12)

precipitate witli acetic acid and ferrocyanide of potassium, Foi' a furtlier examination, wo adopt the method described in the first case, that is, by precipitating by alcohol. It was not always possible to test all the reactions for hemi-albumose, mentioned by Kiihne and Salkowski, partly because they were not known at that time, and partly because the pro- peptonuria had disappeared before the minute and systematic examination could be made. But this much was determined, in addition to the reaction with acetic acid and ferrocyanide of potassium, that boiling alone left the urine clear, that nitric or acetic acid produced cloudiness in the cold urine, and that clearness was restored by heat. Small differences in the behaviour of the urine, and deviations in the reactions of the hemi-albumose obtained during digestion repeatedly occurred, thus in the biuret test violet often took the place of red, or acetic acid and concentrated solution of sulphate of magnesia, or of chloride of sodium, caused no cloudiness, or only a very slight degree of it in cold urine, and still less on boiling. In my opinion much importance need not be attributed to these deviations, for the quantity of saline constituents of the urine and other admixtures may well account for them. It appears more important to call attention to the fact that it is highly probable that cases occur in which hemi- albumose and albumen coagulable by heat (serum-albumin and globulin) occur together in the urine,—cases which can be designated by the term mixed albuminuria. I have repeatedly met with cases, and my experience is certainly not solitary, in which the urine yielded a slight precipitate on boiling, while the addition of nitric acid without previous heat, or of acetic acid and ferrocyanide of potassium, produced a copious precipitate, and further that the precipi- tate caused by the nitric acid was diminished, and not increased on boiling the mixture. I had hitherto always thought that an explanation must be found for this in the- variety of the saline constituents of the urine, or perhaps in the fact that in the cold urine uric acid was likewise pre- cipitated, until I closely investigated a case of sub-acute- nephritis, in which these reactions were very striking. The urine which was very acid was boiled, while a drop of acetic