Volume 2

Animal chemistry with reference to the physiology and pathology of man / by J. Franz Simon ; translated and edited by George E. Day.

  • Johann Franz Simon
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Animal chemistry with reference to the physiology and pathology of man / by J. Franz Simon ; translated and edited by George E. Day. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    460/584 (page 444)
    mixed cMorides. Tlie dried residue, after being weighed, is moistened with a httle concentrated hydrochloric acid, and afterwards treated with anhydrous alcohol, which takes up the chloride of magnesium. The alcoholic solution is treated with a little carbonate of potash, evaporated, and dried in a platinum crucible heated to incipient redness. After the extraction of the potash, the magnesia remains. The chlorides of calcium, sodium, and ammonium, must be separated in the ordinary manner. III. Calculi of uric [xanthic) oxide. Calculi of this sub- stance usually contain no other constituent, with the exception of a little animal matter. Uric oxide was first met with by Marcet, forming a calculus weighing 8 grains ; some years after- Avards a few minute concretions of the same nature Avere de- scribed by Laugier; more recently it was discovered by Stromeyer in a calculus weighing 338 grains, and as large as a pigeon’s egg, extracted by Langenbeck ; [and a fourth specimen Aveighing 7 grains, has been lately described by Dulk.^] Their external surface is smooth and polished, and of a cinnamon- brown colour. Their cut surface is of a broAvn flesh-colour, and consists of concentric laminae easily sepai’able from each other. In point of hardness they resemble tuic acid, and when rubbed they assume a waxy appearance. Although rule oxide is of rare occAxrrence, it need never escape detection with or- dinary care. The fact of its entire destruction before the flame of the blow-pipe at once distinguishes it from the calcuh which contain fixed constituents: by its behaviour with nitric acid, and with carbonate of potash (in which uric acid dissolves, but uric oxide is insoluble,) it may be distinguished from uric acid, Avhich it resembles in many respects. In order to make a full analysis of a calculus of this de- scription, it must be first pulverised, and then everything soluble in ether, alcohol, and water removed. If uric acid is associated with it, carbonate of potash serves to separate the acid from the oxide; if earthy phosphates or oxalate of hme are present, they must be removed by dilute hydrochloric acid. Any ui’ates that are present are taken up by water. ' [Simons’ Beitrage, p. 413: moreover Unger has discovered minute traces of a substance closely allied to uric oxide, if not identical with it, in guano.]