The formation and excretion of uric acid : considered with reference to gout and allied diseases / by A. Haig.

  • Haig, Alexander, 1853-1924.
Date:
1888
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The formation and excretion of uric acid : considered with reference to gout and allied diseases / by A. Haig. 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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    ference. Sir A. Garrod has noticed between the light and heavy wines, and also why wines that act as diure- tics (probably from their containing an extra quantity of potash or its salts)^ are less harmful than others; also why old and expensive wines are less harmful than new and cheap ones, for one of the effects of keeping wine is a loss of acidity by aetherification.^ As will have been seen from previous papers I had worked at diet for a long time before I began to study drugs, but the effects of all varieties of diet on uric acid excretion may be summed up by saying that all foods that increase acidity diminish uric acid excretion, and all foods that diminish acidity increase uric acid excretion. I have not been able to satisfy myself that any food increases the formation of uric acid above its normal relation to urea i^-l^ {^^^ Journal of Physiology). A highly nitrogenous diet of course increases the formation, both of uric acid and urea, but only in their natural proportions. Foods may increase acidity directly by the acids or acid salts they contain, or indirectly by causing dyspepsia and acid fermentation processes in the stomach or intestines (see dyspepsia later on). They may diminish acidity by the alkali they contain,^ as Sir W. Roberts says that the alkalescence of the blood is probably'due to the preponder- ance of alkaline bases in our food. While speaking of this subject I must not forget to men- tion a very interesting table of Lehmann's results, which is given by Sir A. Garrod in his Lumleian* Lectures, showing uric acid and urea excretion under different diets, thus :— ' Dr. B. Yeo, British Medical Journal, vol. i., 1888, p. 18. ' See Mr. W. Blyth's Foods, Composition, and Analysis, p. 439. ^ Urinary and Renal Diseases. Ed. IV., p. 56 and others. * British Medical Journal^ vol. i, 1883, p. 704.