The uric acid diathesis : gout sand and gravel / by F. Levison.

  • Levison, F., 1843-1907.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The uric acid diathesis : gout sand and gravel / by F. Levison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lymph and blood being thus increased ; and when, from any unknown cause, stasis occur in the lymph vessels in some locality, it gives rise to irritation and morbid changes in the organs, according to its degree, from the uric acid acting as a chemical poison. When the stasis is very severe, acute gout and the deposition of uric acid salts supervenes. This theory is just as hypothetical as Pfeiffer’s ,* ac- cording to which the uric acid diathesis depends on the fact that uric acid is formed in the system in a modified form, not easily soluble, which becomes deposited in healthy portions of the body, or crystallises in necrosed parts. In his view an acute attack of gout sets in when the alkalinity of the blood is temporarily increased, so that the deposited uric acid is again dissolved, and acts as a chemical poison. Our knowledge of the subject has extended only in recent years as contributions have been made in various quarters upon the origin of uric acid in the healthy body, and the conditions which increase or diminish its amount. An endeavour will be made in the following pages to give an account of these recent investigations, and also to show from them how various items in the pathology of the uric acid diathesis, which formerly were unexplained phenomena, can find a simple ex- planation. Of the less recent contributors, Macht may be men- tioned. He was able to produce a considerable increase in the excretion of uric acid in birds by feeding them on hypoxanthin; he concluded from this that hypoxanthin * “Verhandlungen des Congresses für innere Medicin,” p. 166. 1889. Berlin klin. Wochenschr. 1892. No. 16 ff. t Archiv f. exper. Pathol, u. Pharm., 1887, p. 148.