When the disease is fairly established the dropsy is always a prominent symptom, often very distressing to the patient. In some patients when once developed it continues to increase steadily up to the time of their death; in others the dropsy comes and goes, sometimes disappearing altogether for weeks and months. The functions of the stomach are usually disturbed, the patients lose appetite, have nausea and vomiting, oppression after eating, etc. But some persons retain a good appetite for a long time, even though they vomit occasionally. Diarrhoea is often developed; sometimes only enough to carry off part of the dropsy, sometimes profuse, persistent, and uncontrollable. The blood becomes thin and watery, and the skin, the mucous membranes, and the sclerotic assume an unnatural white appearance. The patients lose both mental and bodily vigor, and become less and less fit to carry on their ordinary occupations. Of the uræmic symptoms, headache and dyspnoea occur at any time in {91} the course of the disease, but convulsions, delirium, and coma belong to its later stages. The urine is regularly first diminished and afterward increased, but the quantity often varies very much from day to day. The specific gravity is regularly low, albumen is constant and in large amount; casts are usually present in considerable numbers, especially during the exacerbations of the disease, when hyaline, granular, and epithelial casts are found, but in other cases hardly any casts can be found. Blood is sometimes present in the urine during the exacerbations of the nephritis. The disease varies much in its course and duration. Some cases progress steadily, getting worse from day to day, and die at the end of a few months from the time at which the first symptoms appeared. Other persons go on living for years, the symptoms improving or disappearing for weeks or months, and then coming again. Finally, the patients die--some in an exacerbation of the disease with bloody urine and acute symptoms; some with excessive dropsy; some with delirium, convulsions, and coma; some suddenly; some with complicating disease. The following histories may serve to illustrate the course of the disease: