Materia medica, pharmacy, pharmacology and therapeutics / by W. Hale White.

  • Hale-White, William, Sir, 1857-1949.
Date:
1903
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Materia medica, pharmacy, pharmacology and therapeutics / by W. Hale White. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    73/710 (page 63)
    tion, in the hope that if one of them does not have the desired result another will. 2. Drugs diminishing the quantity of urine secreted.—These are such as produce acute inflam- mation of the kidney when given in large doses ; e.g. turpentine, cantharides, phosphorus. They are never given for this purpose in medicine. 3. Drugs rendering the urine acid.—The chief official drug that can do this effectually is probably benzoic acid, for in its passage through the kidney it is converted into hippuric acid. Benzoic acid is therefore given when from any cause the urine under- goes alkaline decomposition anywhere within the urinary passages. Acid sodium phosj^hate is the natural acid of the urine, and its administration by the mouth increases the acidity of that fluid. Salicylic acid will, to a slight extent, increase the acidity of the urine, as will very large doses of citric acid, tartaric acid, citrates and tartrates. (For drugs which render the urine acid by preventing decomposition, see p. 64.) 4. Drugs tvhich render the 2irine alkaline.—Most salts of the metals potassium, sodium, lithium, calcium, will do this ; even the tartrates, citrates, and acetates, for they escape by the kidney as carbonates. Nitric acid is said to increase the amount of am- monia in the urine, and thus to render it slightly alkaline. Ammonium salts given internally do not render the urine alkahne, because they are decom- posed in the body, urea being probably formed. Lithontriptics are drugs which prevent the de- position in the urinary passages of the solids of the urine. If this fluid be acid, uric acid often crystal- lizes out, forming gravel or uric acid calculus; less often calcium oxalate crystallizes, giving rise to calcium oxalate calculus. When there is any likeli- hood of the formation of either of these calculi, alkalies may be given. If the urine is undergoing alkaline decomposition phosphates are liable to