Physiology and pathology of the urine : with methods for its examination / by J. Dixon Mann.

  • John Dixon Mann
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Physiology and pathology of the urine : with methods for its examination / by J. Dixon Mann. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    after rising in the morning than during the rest of the day; the usual colour is amber-yellow. In health, light coloured urine occurs after the ingestion of large quantities of liquid ; in disease, it occurs in diabetes insipidus, in acute diabetes mellitus, in hysteria and allied conditions, and in granular kidney. An unusually intense yellow colour is suggestive of the presence of bile-pigment or of excess of urobilin, or of urochrome; the two substances first named may produce a much darker colour, like that of strong ale ; when much bile-pigment is present the urine may be black, like porter. In fevers and febrile diseases, such as acute rheumatism and pneumonia, the urine is usually deep brown in colour, partly due to concentration and partly to the presence of excess of urobilin. Red- tinted urine suggests the admixtux’e of blood; if the amount of blood be small, and if it be derived from the kidneys, the urine will have a smoky appearance. When free htemoglobin liberated from the blood corpuscles is present, the urine in bulk may appear quite black ; in smaller volume, or when diluted with water, it is red. The presence of some of the derivatives of blood may alter the colour of the urine; a burgundy-red tint suggests the presence of hsemato- porphyrin, although the tint is really caused by some other unknown pigment which may accompany hmmatoporphyrin, especially after the prolonged administration of sidphonal or trional. The tint of the urine may be changed by the presence of various adventitious colouring-matters: rhubarb gives it a rich golden yellow; phenol and its derivatives a green or dark brown colour. In some morbid conditions the colour materially changes if the urine, after being pas.sed, be allowed to stand exposed to the air; this occurs in carbo- luria, alkaptonuria, and melanuria. In the healthy state the ui’ine is always limpid when passed, and it remains so after many hours’ standing. A faint cloud of mucus, in which are entangled a few epithelial cells, slowly subsides; this is known as the nehecula, and is best seen when the urine has been allowed to stand in a tall glass vessel. Occasionally the iiebecula may be seen floating midway in the column of urine; this is some- times due to excess of urochrome, or to high speciflc gravity of the urine, and sometimes to the inclusion of small air bubbles in the cloud, and to its being more than usually difl’use in character. When occupying its usual position, the nebecula is subject to considerable variations in density and translucency without aflbiding any indi- cations of di.sea.se. The presence of vulval and v.aginal epithelium and mucus tends to make the nebecula denser in women tluin in men ; the leucorrhcca, to which .some women are subject without obvious interference with health, may impart to it a semi purulent
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