Observations on the urine in pernicious anaemia : I. Excretion of pathological urobilin. II. Excretion of blood pigment. III. Excretion of iron in health and disease / by William Hunter.

  • Hunter, William, 1861-1937.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the urine in pernicious anaemia : I. Excretion of pathological urobilin. II. Excretion of blood pigment. III. Excretion of iron in health and disease / by William Hunter. 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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    relation between the colour of the urine and its quantity or specific gravity was best observed in the later stages of the illness, when, as I have stated, the quantity was greatest and the specific gravity lowest; and yet it was at this time that the colour was highest. The urine was usually perfectly clear and transparent. On two or three occasions it was slightly muddy, and on two occasions (March 14th and 15th), at a time when arsenic was being pushed a little too rapidly, it was very muddy and threw down a heavy deposit of urates with uric acid crystals. At the same time there were some pain and difficulty in micturition, which soon however passed off. With regard to the cause of this high colour of the urine, at no time were any bile pigments to be detected. In addition to the ordinary method of applying the Gmelin test, I used the one recommended by Hoppe-Seyler, when other colouring matters such as haemoglobin or urobilin are present, namely precipitat- ing the urine with a moderate quantity of milk of lime, shaking well, then filtering off the precipitate, and washing with water. A few drops of impure nitric acid allowed to fall on the pre- cipitate on the filter gives the well-known colour reactions if any bile pigments are present. On the few occasions on which there was a heavy deposit of urates, there was a considerable quantity of uro-erythrin, the colouring matter so frequently found in the urine of fever patients, giving a well-marked rose-red colour to the paper when filtered. Haemoglobin was never found either on chemical or spectroscopic examination. On spectroscopic examination, however, I found a well-marked absorption band lying close to the line F of the spectrum, and fading off towards the line b, with at the same time a consider- able absorption of the outer part of the blue spectrum (Figs. 1 and 2). The colouring matter which gave this spectrum I was able to separate in large quantities by shaking the urine gently for some time with half its volume of chloroform, decanting off the solution, and then evaporating to dryness. After again being taken up in chloroform, filtered, and evaporated, a residue of a brownish-red colour remained, readily soluble in alcohol, the