Selected monographs.

Date:: 1888

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

105/440 (page 89)

Another kind o£ degeneration of the epithelium, the parenchymatous degeneration, is a well-known phenomenon in febrile infectious diseases. It is also well known that these diseases are characterised by the presence of albuminuria, to which the epithet febrile has been attached, and there is a point of resemblance between it and the albuminuria which occurs in phosphorus-poisoning and pernicious anasmia, namely this, that though as a general rule it is more marked than m these latter conditions, it is usually not a prominent symptom, especially when compared with the albuminuria of nephritis or of amyloid degeneration of the kidneys. On this account it was unknown or disregarded in former times, and only recently has it been considered worthy of consideration, but the instances of its occurrence become more and more numerous the greater the care bestowed upon its discovery. Whereas a few years ago the term febrile albuminuria was scarcely heard of, the condition is now universally regarded as an ordinary symptom. It is, however, difficult to estimate the share taken by the parenchymatous degener- ation of the epithelium in the causation of this albuminuria, because a series of other conditions invariably co-operate therein, and to which, even more than to the degeneration of the epithelium, a certain influence must be ascribed, as will be shown in a subsequent page (see Section VI). It remains now to allude to a peculiar form of degenera- tion of the epithelium, viz. the coagulative necrosis, types of which can be artificially produced by the administration of certain poisons, especially chromic acid, and likewise by petroleum, croton oil, and cantharidin. Albuminuria speedily follows the administration of these poisons, as Grergen has found in experiments with chromic acid. Lassar has discov- ered a marked peculiarity with regard to petroleum poisoning, viz. that a stage of propeptonuria precedes the excretion o£ the albumen which is coagulable by heat (serum-albumin, and globulin), that is, albuminuria proper (see page lo). Weigert (Kabierske) states that in animals poisoned with chromic acid salts, after some hours interval, only the epithe- lium of the convoluted uriniferous tubules is involved in the degeneration, whereas the glomerular vessels, the interstitial tissue, and the epithelium of the straight tubes remain intact.