The urine of jaundice is generally described as being of a saffron colour; but if I may be allowed to form an opinion from my own observations, which are tolerably numerous, I should say that it, in colour, much more frequently resembles old ale than anything else with which I am acquainted. On standing, the colour changes very considerably, in consequence of the pigment becoming slowly oxidized by its exposure to the air. When there is a very great excess of bile pigment present in the blood, the kidneys have some difficulty in eliminating it. Occasionally even, it chokes up the renal capillaries, and thereby complicates the jaundice by inducing secondary disease in the kidney. In such cases the external surface of the kidney, after the removal of the capsule, looks as if it had been sprinkled over with ink. The black specks vary in size from the minutest visible point to that of a pin-head. The accompanying chromo-lithograph (Plate II.) represents a kidney in this condition. {58} It will also be observed that it is studded over with a number of small abscesses; but whether these resulted from the blocking-up of the capillaries just alluded to or not, it is impossible to say. In the case in question no albumen was detected in the urine during life, and it was only on careful analysis, after the post-mortem had revealed the above state of matters, that a small quantity was discovered; and even then, had not the experiment been carefully performed, the presence of albumen might have been overlooked. [Illustration: Plate II. Kidney from a Case of Permanent Jaundice.] _Diagnostic Value of the presence of the Bile-Acids in the Urine._