Selected monographs.

Date:: 1888

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

114/440 (page 98)

albuminuria during digestion lias been noticed by numerous observers (see page ig), and to it, therefore, a peculiar name, digestion-albuminuria(albuminuria alimentaria), has been attached. That likewise, in the ordinary forms of morbid albuminuria, an increase in the excretion of albumen is a frequent result of digestion, altogether independently of other conditions, is a fact already noticed by Parkes and Gubler (85), and one that has been minutely investigated by Brunton and Power (86), and confirmatory evidence of which abounds on all sides. Moreover, in addition to the increase of albumen and salts, the above-mentioned investigations of Hoppe-Seyler and Newman show that regard must be had to the increase of the quantity of urea in the blood, which occurs some time after the digestion of albuminous food, and manifests itself in the increased excretion of urea. It is well known, on the other hand, that the urine becomes increased in quantity while digestion is going on, and such increase is in a measure independent of the process of filtration, and is in excess of the activity of the latter, inas- much as the glandular secretion proper is at the same time- augmented, owing to the influence of the urea, the salts, &c.. These facts, as we have already explained (see pages 28, 40), constitute a reason why in most cases the discovery of the quantity of albumen of the urine is rendered difficult. For if a fluid containing much albumen transudes through the glomerular vessels, and receives in addition, a greater quantity of non-albuminous fluid, consisting of the secre- tion of the glandular epithelium, the quantity of albumen in the urine as a whole may be very small, and may pro- gressively diminish until it reaches the proportion observed when no digestion is going on, or even falls below it. The concurrence of particularly favorable circumstances is, therefore, required for this digestion-albuminuria to make its appearance, and it may be soonest expected after a meal containing much albumen but very little water. Pood con- taining much saline matters will be less favorable m this respect, for the ordinary salts may act in two directions, since on the one hand they facilitate the filtration of albumen in the glomeruli, but on the other, the secretion of water by the glandular epithelium. This purely theoretical deduction