The uric acid diathesis : gout, sand and gravel / by F. Levison ; translated from the German, and edited by Lindley Scott.

Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The uric acid diathesis : gout, sand and gravel / by F. Levison ; translated from the German, and edited by Lindley Scott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    here, that alkalies possess a favourable action on the chemical constitution of the urine ; and, moreover, that they appear to slightly decrease the production of uric acid when the amount given is not overdone in a purely theoretical fashion. The various mineral springs act in the same way as the carbonates and acetates of the allvalies. Fachingen, Vichy, and Wildungen waters are usually employed for this purpose; no particular advantage being derived fi*om any one of these more than another ; their activity stands in proportion to the amount of alkalies contained, and to the quantity of water which the patient may consume without disturbances of digestion arising. As the quantity of uric acid in the blood and in the urine is directly proportional to the disintegration of leucocytes, there is reason, in cases of increased uric acid production, to prescribe those remedies that will diminish the number of leucocytes. With tliis in view, quinine or arsenic, specially recommended by Laache,* may be ordered. In piivate practice it is very difficult to get the urine of patients collected during the 24 hours, especially when it has to be continued for a considerable time. I have not succeeded in making a large number of examinations of the urine after the administration of these drugs. In several children, where the symptoms as well as the number of blood corpuscles justified the assumption of an increased uric acid production, and in whom were undoubted signs of kidney irritation caused hy the deposition of uric acid crystals, I have investigated the medicinal action of arsenic and iron preparations; and it * Dio Aniimie, Christianin, I8S3, und Verb, des X. InUrn. Con^-r. ]3eilm, Bd. ii. Abth. v. p. 152.