Jaundice: Its Pathology and Treatment: With the Application of Physiological Chemistry to the Detection and Treatment of Diseases of the Liver and PancreasHarley, George
Science
Jaundice: Its Pathology and Treatment: With the Application of Physiological Chemistry to the Detection and Treatment of Diseases of the Liver and Pancreas
Harley, George
Jaundice
A marked change is here seen to have occurred in the constitution of
the renal secretion. First--the quantity of urea has notably diminished
(from 27·28 to 23·99 grammes, or in other words, from 423·84 to 370
grains.) The amount of uric acid has also fallen (from 0·511 to 0·266
grammes, or in other words, from 8 to 4 grains); while at the same time
the biliary acids have considerably decreased. These changes are also
seen to be accompanied by another, which I at once regarded {79} as a
most unfavourable sign,--namely, the appearance of sugar in the urine.
Although the quantity of sugar was as yet small, and it was associated
with a diminution in the bile acids, it nevertheless made me look
forward with gloomy forebodings, for as far as my experience goes, when
the urine becomes saccharine in the course of a chronic, and exhausting
disease, it has generally been the forerunner of a fatal termination.
This case, I am sorry to say, proved no exception to the rule. There
was, indeed, but one consolatory fact in the analysis, and that was the
diminution of the uric acid, which, as I before remarked, tended to
negative the idea of malignant disease of the liver, and this was a
great source of satisfaction to the patient.
Eight days later, 12th November, a qualitative, and quantative analysis
of the urine was again made, with the following result:--
24 HOURS' URINE.
Quantity (33 oz.) . . . . . . . 1023 c.c.
Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . Acid.
Specific gravity . . . . . . . 1017.
Urea . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15·345 grammes.
Uric acid . . . . . . . . . . . ?
Bile acids . . . . . . . . . . None.
Bile pigment . . . . . . . . . Abundant.
Sugar . . . . . . . . . . . . . Increased. {80}
Tyrosine, and leucine[25] . . . In small quantity.
Solids (total) . . . . 23·426
Organic matter . . . . . . . . 17·698
Inorganic . . . . . . . . . . . 5·728
[Footnote 25: On precipitating the urine with the acetate of lead,
filtering, and freeing the clear liquid from the excess of that reagent
by means of sulphuretted hydrogen, and again filtering, the liquid, on
evaporation, was found to deposit small crystals of tyrosine, and to
have floating in it, and on its surface, round balls of leucine.]
Here, is now to be observed, the rapid downward progress of the case.
Stomachal digestion, as indicated by the amount of urea, is much
impaired. The general health, as indicated by the sugar, is sadly
affected, and, to crown all, tyrosine, and leucine, the indicators of
atrophy of the liver, have made their appearance. So unfavourable was
the result of this analysis considered, that Dr. Prance felt himself
bound to fulfil a promise he had made to the family some time
previously, of warning them of approaching danger, when we had no
longer any hope of the patient's recovery.
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