Rheumatism: its nature, causes, and cure : gout: its nature, causes, cure, and prevention / by James Alexander.

  • James Alexander
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rheumatism: its nature, causes, and cure : gout: its nature, causes, cure, and prevention / by James Alexander. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    acid being in excess of the standard of liealtli in tlie proportion of 6 to 1: but here again decarbonization is defective, not merely from the presence of retained bile, but the breathing is in a great measure thoracic, for the patient dreads the pressure of the diaphragm on the inflamed organ, and uses his abdominal muscles as little ! as possible for the purposes of respiration. The : next disease is icterus: here the ratio of uric acid to urea is 1 to 16T, being about double the quantity of uric acid, compared to urea, that is found iii healthy urine, biit relatively ■ one-third less than exists in acute hepatitis with jaundice, and one-half less than is found in heart disease with jaundice. The com- ! parative quantities of uric acid and urea in ] these tiiree last diseases show in a remark- ] able manner that retained bile alone, aithough 1 doubling the normal quantity of uric acid, is not i nearly so influential in this respect as when j retained bile is combined with other maladies which interfere with the due decarbonization of the blood during the functions of circulation and respiration. In milk fever, the last disease in Becquerel’s list, the ratio of uric acid to urea is 1 to 7‘47, rather more than four times the nor- mal proportion. The defective action of the skin in this, as during the hot stage of all fevers,
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