It is obvious from what has been said that the diagnosis of albuminuria as a symptom is sufficiently simple with a little care in chemical manipulation, but that its significance is not so easy to determine in every case, since it is found in so many cases unconnected with chronic or progressive renal disease, and on the other hand may be absent while serious nephritis is going on. Albuminuria, as defined at the beginning of this article--that is, occurring in the absence of chronic and serious renal disease--is only to be diagnosticated by the exclusion of such diseases, by careful consideration of all the symptoms present, such as changes in the quantity and specific gravity of the urine, in the force, rhythm, and size of the heart, and of the arterial tension, as well as the relation of the amount of albumen to the amount of urine and character of the sediment as indicating one or the other form of nephritis. Thus a very small amount of albumen with a highly concentrated urine is not likely to be met with in the usual forms of nephritis, but is often found in connection with valvular disease of the heart. {42} Treatment is but rarely directed to this symptom, since, when albumen is present in but small quantity, as usually happens, it is of little or no consequence except as an important element in diagnosis, while the few cases in which the amount is large enough to constitute a serious drain upon the system are almost exclusively cases of actual Bright's disease, and hence do not come under this head. The administration of astringents, especially tannic and gallic acids, has been found to diminish the quantity of albumen in the urine. (A copious bibliography of this subject will be found in an article by Ellis in the _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_, vol. i., 1880.) Renal Colic; Renal Calculus.