Clinical diagnosis : the bacteriological, chemical, and microscopical evidence of disease / by Rudolf v. Jaksch ; translated from the second German edition by James Cagney ; with an appendix by Wm. Stirling.

  • Cagney James.
Date:
1890
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical diagnosis : the bacteriological, chemical, and microscopical evidence of disease / by Rudolf v. Jaksch ; translated from the second German edition by James Cagney ; with an appendix by Wm. Stirling. 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.

    84/432 (page 56)
    after one hour, the fluid (which of course must have been tested beforehand to ascertain the absence of sugar) will give all the reactions of grape-sugar if amylolytic ferment be present. Nitrites often occur in saliva. They may be detected by adding to a little of the fluid a mixture of starch paste, iodide of potassium, and dilute sulphuric acid, when, if nitrites be present, an intense blue colour will be seen. A very useful test for nitrites has been suggested by (?ness.“ To a specimen of saliva diluted with five times its bulk of water, a few drops of sulphuric acid are added, and then metadiamido benzol which melts at 63° C. The appearance of an intense yellow colour shows the presence of nitrites. (See Appendix IX.) IV. CONSTITUTION OF MORBID SALIVA IN GENERAL.— The quantity of saliva is diminished during inflammation of the salivai’y glands in febrile disorders and diabetes, and often also in nephritis. [In high fever no saliva is secreted. That of moderate fever is thick and scanty, and usually acid, and with the rise of temperature its diastatic action is lessened.] It is increased in inflammations of the mouth, by the action of certain poisons—as, e.g., pilocarpin and mercury —[in trigeminal neuralgia] and sometimes by the irritation of carious teeth. The excessive secretion which attends poisoning by acids and alkalies is rather due to irritation of the ducts than to any specific action on the salivary glands. A long-continued flow of saliva will sometimes occur without its being possible to ascribe it to any of the causes mentioned. In such cases probably the disturbance is due to some obscure changes in the innervation of the glands. Salivation has occasionally been recorded as occurring in pregnancy [Schramm)}^ These are the rare cases (referred to above) which afford a favour- able opportunity for chemical analysis of the saliva. In a case of ptyalism which the author observed, analysis of the saliva showed that it contained 995.2 grms. of water and 4.8 grms. of solids. Its reaction was alkaline. It held a small quantity of mucin, traces of serum-albumin, and some sulphocyanides. The iodide of starch test showed the absence of nitrites; and no sugar was detected by phenyl hydrazin or other reagents (SalkoicsJd).^- Certaiu diseases are attended with notable qualitative changes in the saliva. Thus in nephritis considerable quantities of urea have been found in it by Wright, Picard, Rahuteau,^^ and FleischerP For its detection Fleischer employs the following method:—An alco- holic extract of the saliva is made and filtered ; the filtrate evaporated, and the residue dissolved in amyl-alcohol. Ci’ystals of urea remain after evaporation, and may be recognised by any of the tests described at p. 46. Bomheron found uric acid in the saliva of ursemic patients by employing the mui-exide test (p. 47).