On some diseases in which albuminous urine occurs / by Thomas Williamson.

Date:
[1841]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some diseases in which albuminous urine occurs / by Thomas Williamson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    small ancl atrophied, containing a considerable sized calculus with- in its pelvis. The parenchymatous tissue of this kidney was al- most entirely converted into serous cysts. A smaller calculus, of a peculiar flat button shape, was contained in one of those cysts at the upper part of this kidney. The right kidney was in a state of hypertrophy, but otherwise healthy. The urinary bladder was large, and immensely hypertrophied in all its coats ; its inner or mucous coat was rough and granular, several small calculi were found in the urethral portion of the prostate gland, which gland itself was much increased in size. Some writers upon the granular kidney, in establishing the ex- istence of albumen in the renal secretion, as one of the pathogno- monic symptoms most to be relied on for pointing out the disease, deny, that, whilst the renal tissue remains unaltered, any organic lesion of the liver is capable of producing the phenomenon in ques- tion. It will be seen, by referring to a few cases which follow, that albumen was detected in the urine of individuals, in whom the tissue of the liver was, upon dissection, found to deviate from, its normal condition, and to have assumed that peculiar appear- ance known by the term cirrhosis. Little value may, perhaps, however, be attached to such cases, seeing that it has been doubt- ed by able authority whether this seeming change of structure be really an accidental deposit. I have, notwithstanding, thought them worth recording. Case IX.—A Prussian sailor fell by accident into the hold of his vessel. Immediately afterwards he was brought to the Casualty Hospital (Leith), when it was found that he had sustained a severe fracture of the cranium. Lie died in a few hours after admission, with symptoms of compression of the brain. Upon dissection, a large coagulum was found between the inner table of the scull and dura mater. The corresponding or left cerebral hemisphere was much compressed, and partially lacerated. The liver was large, and contained many large patches affected with cirrhosis. The spleen was soft, and the kidneys perfectly healthy. The urine was pale and colourless; specific gravity, 1016. When exposed to heat or nitric acid an abundant precipitate of albumen was the result. This man was uncommonly powerful, 30 years of age, and in the full enjoyment of health both previous to and at the time Iof the accident. Case X.—J. Robertson, aged 30 years, a stout muscular por- ter, of intemperate habits, was seized with all the ordinary symp- toms of delirium tremens, from which he died. Upon dissection, the traces of general cerebral congestion were apparent, without, however, any of the prominent effects of in- flammatory action. Considerable serous effusion was found be- tween the arachnoid membrane and pia mater, as also at the