Selected monographs.

Date:: 1888

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

160/440 (page 142)

THE HYGIENIC TREATMENT OE ALBUMINURIA/ In tlie treatment of various disorders of tlie kidneys, and especially of those usually classed together as acute or chronic forms of Bright's disease, albuminuria is the sym- ptom which deserves the closest attention ; but not, as is still generally asserted, because a long-continued excretion of albumen impairs the nutrition of the system. This, in my opinion, is a mistaken notion, founded as it is on a highly exaggerated estimate of the loss of albumen such as occurs in most cases even of very serious affections of the kidneys. In a very marked case of albuminuria, the albumen rarely amounts to more than a few tenths per cent., and we know that the percentage generally increases with the diminution in the quantity of urine and diminishes when the latter is increased. If, therefore, the proportion of albumen in the urine be very considerable, say 5 or 8, this being an extraordinarily high percentage, the daily amount passed will weigh only a few grammes, perhaps six or eight, or possibly ten as a maximum. A loss of albumen exceeding this amount is altogether exceptional, and, when it occurs, is of very short duration and never lasts for many days or weeks. Losses of albumen to this extent do not appreciably injure an adult, unless his system has been extremely reduced in other ways. Six to eight grammes of albumen represent the quantity contained in forty grammes of beef; and it is evident that if that is all, half-a-pound of meat would almost suffice to cover the » A lecture delivered before tlio Berlin Medical Society, October nth, 1882.