The ammoniacal decomposition of urine / by Wm. Robert Smith.

  • William Edward Smith
Date:
[1887]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ammoniacal decomposition of urine / by Wm. Robert Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    vestigation under the direction of Dr. Klein at the Brown Institution. I wouldj however, in the first place call attention to a valuable paper published last year by Professor W. Leube, to which I am indebted for much information, in which he describes at some length a series of experiments undertaken by Dr. E. Graser and himself with the view of determining the particular organisms which produce the alkaline urinary fermentation. He mentions that, as the result of their experiments, they were able to isolate four well-described varieties which possessed this property, two of them to a very great extent, and the re- maining two only in a feebler sense. The strongest influence he found to be exerted by small bacilli which he designated the Bacterium urese. These bacilli are described as being of a uniform size, 001 mm, in thickness, of an average length of 002 mm., with rounded ends. The second growth of most frequent occurrence is a micro- coccus of a globular form, and all of equal size, about '8 m. ('008 mm.) in diameter. They are occasionally united to form diplococci, or two diplococci may join to form a square. They do not liquefy gelatine. The two remaining organisms which are said to possess a weaker and less constant action are : ]. Small and thick bacilli of an oval shape with a varying length of 1'2 m. to 1*5 m., their greatest width being always •7 or -8 m. 3. Very minute bacilli with a length of from 1*3 to 1'4 m., and a thickness of '6 ra. With the view of further investigating the life-history of the organisms producing this fermentation, I took a quantity of ordinary normal urine which had been recently voided and divided it into two parts j one part I placed aside in a sterilised beaker to allow of decomposition taking place in the ordinary way ; the other part I boiled in a sterilised flask for half an hour. I then filtered it into another sterilised flask, taking the ordinary precautions, and finally decanted it into a number of sterilised test-tubes which were subsequently steamed for