The urine in health and disease : being an exposition of the composition of the urine, and of the pathology and treatment of urinary and renal disorders / by Arthur Hill Hassall.

  • Arthur Hill Hassall
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The urine in health and disease : being an exposition of the composition of the urine, and of the pathology and treatment of urinary and renal disorders / by Arthur Hill Hassall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    G Lastly, the colour of the urine may he affected hy the presence of colouring matters derived from certain foods or medicines, as santomne, gamboge, indigo (Ranke), chimaphila or winter-green, senna, and rhubarb. These may all be distinguished from urine pigment by the action of strong solutions of alkalies and acids, the addition of which to the urine occasions very considerable and un- usual alterations of colour, when any of these extraneous pigmentary substances are present. Creasote, either taken by the mouth or introduced into the system by the skin, has caused on several occa- sions the urine to assume a black or blackish colour. The inunction of tar has been known to be followed by the same effect. Both creasote and tar probably give rise to the formation of carbolic acid, upon the presence of which in the urine the discoloration may depend. It has been stated that the colouring matters of saffron, logwood, madder, and allcana root, all pass into the urine, but Kletzinsky was unable to detect them. Smell. The peculiar odour of the urine is due to the presence of certain volatile substances, the nature of which has not yet been precisely determined; but amongst them, according to Staedeler, phem/lio or carbolic, taurylic, damaluric, and damolic acids may be enumerated. This characteristic odour it retains for some time, provided the urine be decidedly acid; but if alkaline, it speedily,in consequence of decomposition, begins to emit an offensive smell; and it may even possess this smell when first voided, especially if the mucous mem- brane of the bladder be affected ; but, independently of its becoming offensive as the result of its more or less decomposed state, it some- times, as when digestion is much at fault, and in some cases of Bright's disease, emits other odours—in particular, a peculiar fishy smell may not unfrequently be detected. Again, the odoriferous principles of certain articles of diet, and of some medicines likewise, make their way into the urine—as of onions and garlic, asparagus, oil of turpentine, cubebs, assafeetida, valerian, juniper, and saffron. Reaction. The reaction of the urine, except after food, is usually acid, but after meals it is for a time frequently neutral, or even alkaline. The acids to which the acidity is mainly due, are phosphoric, hippurie, and uric acids; but it may in some cases be occasioned in part by the presence of excess of sulphuric, as also of certain organic acids, to be hereafter noticed. The acidity is determined by means of a graduated solution of some alkali; but it is frequently expressed as equivalent to so much
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