Contributions to the chemistry of the urine; on the variations in the alkaline and earthy phosphates in the healthy state, and on the alkalescence of the urine from fixed alkali

Abstract

The author, having observed that in some states of disease there occurs in the urine a great excess of the earthy phosphates, was in­ duced to investigate the subject; and as a preliminary inquiry, to ascertain the variations in the amount of these phosphates at differ­ent times in the same person in a state of health, and to trace the causes which determine an excess or a deficiency of these salts in the urine; noting, at the same time, the variations in the quantity of the alkaline phosphates contained in it, with a view of discovering whether these variations are influenced by the same, or by different causes. The principal results to which his experiments have con­ducted him are the following. The quantity of the earthy phos­phates in the urine voided soon after taking food is considerably greater than in that voided at other times ; and this happens whether the meal consists of animal food or of bread only. After long fast­ing, the proportion of earthy phosphates is considerably diminished. On the other hand, the alkaline phosphates are present in greatest quantity when the food consists of bread alone : when meat alone is taken, the deficiency in those salts is still more marked than the excess in the former case. Exercise occasions no change in the quantity of the earthy phosphates, but causes an increase of nearly one-third in the amount of alkaline phosphates ; but its influence is, on the whole, less than that of diet. The earthy phosphates are in­ creased in quantity by chloride of calcium, sulphate of magnesia, and calcined magnesia taken into the stomach. The author next examines the conditions in which the urine is alkalescent, and which he considers to be of two kinds ; the one, long known as ammoniacal , and arising from the presence of carbonate of ammonia; and the other, which has not hitherto been distinctly re­cognised, arising from fixed alkali, and appearing most frequently in urine secreted during a period of from two to four hours after breakfast, in persons suffering only from defective digestion. Under these circumstances, it may be, when voided, either turbid from amorphous sediment, or clear and alkaline when tested, or free from deposit and slightly acid. If in either of these last cases it be heated, an amorphous precipitate falls down, which is soluble in dilute hy­drochloric acid, or in a solution of biphosphate of soda. Healthy urine may at any time be made to yield a precipitate of earthy phos­phates by heat, even though it be acid, by having a portion of this acid neutralised by any alkali, or by phosphate of soda, the fluid becoming more acid when boiled. A solution of earthy phosphates in biphosphate of soda also gives a precipitate on boiling, if some of its acid reaction is removed by any alkali. The fluid when boiled becomes more acid to test-paper, indicating the formation of a more basic earthy phosphate. A result precisely similar is obtained when common phosphate of soda, phosphate of lime, and a little biphos­phate of soda exist together in solution ; and by varying the quan­tities of each of these substances, the various phenomena which the urine occasionally presents may be imitated. The time at which the alkalescence of the urine from fixed alkali generally occurs, indi­cates the existence of some alkaline phosphate, or of some carbonated alkali in the food.