An inquiry into the nature and treatment of diabetes, calculus, and other affections of the urinary organs : with remarks on the importance of attending to the state of the urine in organic diseases of the kidney and bladder: and some practical rules for determining the nature of the disease from the sensible and chemical properties of that secretion / by William Prout.
- William Prout
- Date:
- 1826
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An inquiry into the nature and treatment of diabetes, calculus, and other affections of the urinary organs : with remarks on the importance of attending to the state of the urine in organic diseases of the kidney and bladder: and some practical rules for determining the nature of the disease from the sensible and chemical properties of that secretion / by William Prout. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library at Emory University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library, Emory University.
71/328
![greater or less degree for a considerable time before the omplaint became complicated with diuresis. J may also re- mark, that a second case, very similar to the above, came to' my knowledge some time ago, but from my not being ac- quainted with all the particulars so thoroughly as I coul< wish, I do not lay any stress upon it. The first symptom, as is well known, which usually at- tracts the patient's attention, as well as that of the physician] in this disease, is the increased flow of urine. Whether this be a consequence of the saccharine condition of the urine, or whether it depend upon other causes, is unknown. However this may be, the quantity of the urine seems in some degree to be a measure of the severity of the disease: for the greater, the flow of urine, the greater, for the most part, are the specific gravity and proportion of sugar which it contains, and the more severe the patient's sufferings. In this formj of the disease, an enormous drainage from the system evi- dently takes place of what must be considered as essential to. its preservation and health ; and it is probably to this enor-1 mous drainage, and not to the mere saccharine condition 61 the urine, that a great many of the most distressing symp- toms usually occurring in diabetes are to be referred. The loss of so much matter, says Dr. Elliotson, very justly, from the system, sufficiently explains the hunger, the feel-^ ing of emptiness and sinking in the stomach, the emaciation,' debility, anaphrodisia, coldness of the legs, pains both c them and of the loins, the depression of spirits, &c. without? attributing the disease to the stomach or the kidneys exclu-' sively. The excessive escape of fluid, or, when this does not take place, the feverishness, equally explains the thirst and dryness of the skin.* * Numerous Cases illustrative of the Efficacy of Hydrocyanic or Prussic Acid in Affections of the Stomach, &c. p. 90.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21036718_0071.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
