On the cause of the non-precipitation of oxide of copper in testing certain cases of diabetic urine / by T. Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
[1880?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the cause of the non-precipitation of oxide of copper in testing certain cases of diabetic urine / by T. Lauder Brunton. 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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    / [Reprinted from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, Vol. XVI.] THE CAUSE OF THE NON-PHECIPITATION OF OXIDE OF COPPER IN TESTING CERTAIN CASES OF DIABETIC URINE. T. LAUDER BRUNTON, M.D., F.R.S. In testing for sugar in urine, 1 have frequently observed that 'On boiling, after the addition of sulphate of copper and caustic potash, or of Pavy’s solution, the blue colour of the mixture dis- appeared, and was,replaced by a brownish-yellow one, somewhat duiker than that of the urine itself, but without any precipitate whatever being thrown down. When this has been the case I have generally tested the urine by Moore’s test with liquor potassm alone, in order to ascertain whether sugar were present or not. As a rule, I have attributed little importance to this decol- ouration without precipitation of oxide of copper, and have con- 1 8ideied it to be usually caused by the presence of excess of uric acid, or to some reducing or organic compound of unknown nature A few months ago, however, on examining the urine of a patient whom I knew to be diabetic, I found to my astonishment that 1 got no precipitate of oxide of copper, although I got the blue colour of the mixture of urine and cupric solution destroyed, and its place taken by a tolerably bright yellow opalescence. Know- ing as I did that sugar was generally present in specimens of this m me, it occurred to me that there might be some other substance present in the urine which kent the reduced ovido nf ON BY