Physiological chemistry / by C. G. Lehmann ; translated by George E. Day.

  • Lehmann, Carl Gotthelf, 1812-1863.
Date:
1851-1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiological chemistry / by C. G. Lehmann ; translated by George E. Day. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    phosphate of soda: hence it is invariably necessary to determine the nature of the free acid, whenever it is present in the saliva, in different diseases, before we venture to decide regarding the course of the chemical process accompanying the disease; it is, however, the chief aim of all chemical investigations of animal objects, to draw from them a conclusion regarding the nature of the chemical process in the healthy or diseased state. For semeiotics the simple statement suffices that in this or that condition the saliva exhibits an acid reaction. We shall now briefly mention those pathological states in which, as yet, the saliva has been found to present an acid reaction. The saliva is acid, according to Donne,* in inflammatory affections of the primes vice, in pleuritis, encephalitis, acute rheu- matism, intermittent fever, and uterine affections, and, according to L’Heritier, also in cancer of the stomach. Wright assumes that there are four varieties of acid saliva, namely, (a) that which occurs in idiopathic affections of the salivary glands; (b) that which presents itself when there is a predominance of acid in the organism generally, from constitutional or other causes, amongst which he mentions scrofula, phthisis, rachitis, amenorrhoea, inflam- matory rheumatism, &c.; (c) the form occurring in sub-acute inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and intes- tines; and [d] the form presenting itself in dyspepsia (a somewhat vague mode of expression). In affections of the nervous system, the saliva is on the other hand never acid, but often very strongly alka- line. In catarrhal affections of the gastric and intestinal mucous membranes and in the round perforating form of ulceration of the stomach, I have very often, but not invariably, found the saliva acid; in cancer of the stomach and in diabetes, I have, however, always found it acid. In inflammatory affections of the thoracic organs, in acute rheumatism, typhus, &c., If have very often found the saliva alkaline or perfectly neutral. According to Donne and Frerichsj; the acid reaction always depends on the buccal mucous membrane, which, when in a state of abnormal irritation, invariably yields an acid secretion. Amongst the difficulties which usually present themselves in the investigation of morbid saliva, we may notice that we can rarely obtain a quantity sufficient for analysis, seeing that it is a fluid which contains only a very small amount of solid constituents. * Ilistoire physiol, et pathol. de la Salive. Paris, 1836. t Schmidt's Jahrb. Bd. 36, S. 185.
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