On the morbid conditions of the urine, dependant upon derangements of digestion / by Charles Henry Ralfe.

  • Charles Henry Ralfe
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the morbid conditions of the urine, dependant upon derangements of digestion / by Charles Henry Ralfe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    phosphoric acid was increased, though the proportionate increase of the latter over the former in the second analysis is prodigious. This is what Dr Tessier contends for when he gives the distinctive title phosphatic diabetes to this form of diuresis accompanied with t increased elimination of phosphoric acid; for though urea in some of his cases was in excess, it was not so in all; and this, he says, is the point that distinguishes between azoturia and phosphaturia. Of my cases, in Case 1 and Case 4 the urea was about one third in excess, whilst the phosphoric acid was more than double the normal excretion. In Case 6 the urea was more than double, and the phosphoric acid treble, the normal. In Case 3 the amount of urea was normal, whilst more than double the usual amount of phosphoric acid was excreted.* In these cases, therefore, the excess in the elimination of phosphoric acid was proportionately larger than that of the urea. The question may now be asked, Whether increase of phosphoric acid is not a constant phenomenon in all cases of diuresis, or whether it may not be accounted for by the increased ingestion of food and by the washing out of the tissues by the drain of water through them ? Analytical evidence on this point is meagre, but what evidence we have shows that the increase in the quantity of food ingested, or the drain of water through the system, does not necessarily increase the elimination of phosphoric acid. Dickinsonf and other observers^ have * Throughout I have assumed the 25 grammes represent the normal excretion of an adult weighing from 8 to 9 stone, and 3- grammeR for an adult weighing 11 to 12 stone. t W. Howship Dickinson, M.D., «Diseases of the Kidney,' &c, Part 1, Diabetes, pp. 173 and 208. London, 1875. J Neubauer, Boecker, Beneke, Vogel, Gaethgens, quoted in Ziemssen's ' Cyclopaidia/ Article Diabetes.