A guide to the examination of the urine : designed chiefly for the use of clinical clerks and students / By J. Wickham Legg, M.D.

  • John Wickham Legg
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A guide to the examination of the urine : designed chiefly for the use of clinical clerks and students / By J. Wickham Legg, M.D. 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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    a Berlin dish over a water l^ath, until the ffufcl have the consistence of syrup. A water bath is essential, because an open flame would de- compose the urea. After the syrupy fluid ha-^ completely cooled, nitric acid, as free as possi- ble from nitrons acid, is added drop by dro]', so long as a precipitate is formed. An excess of nitric acid is desirable. Some of these crys- tals of nitrate of urea, removed Avith a trlass rod and placed under the microscope, show flat rhombic or hexagonal plates closely united to onc^ another. Clinical hvi^ort. Urea is the most important constituent of the urine; a healthy man ex- cretes from 300 to -jOO grains in the 24 hours. In some acute diseases, as pneumonia, typhoid fever, and acute rheumatism, it is greatly in- creased owing to the excessive tissue-metam- orphosis, and may be present in such quantity as to give a precipitate, witliout previous con- centration, when the urine is acidulated with niti'ic acid. In other diseases, as uraemia and Bright's disease, the cpiantity of urea is below the average.