Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIV. Urine - I. Physical Properties of Urine
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
674 URINE. .
amount is nearly as large as in the blood-serum. Urea occurs sometimes in
considerable amounts when the parenchyma of the kidneys is only in part atro-
phied; in complete atrophy the urea may be entirely absent.
I. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF URINE.
Consistency, Transparency, Odor, and Taste of Urine. Under
physiological conditions urine is a thin liquid and gives, when shaken
with air, a froth which quickly subsides. Human urine, or urine from
carnivora, which is habitually acid, appears clear and transparent, often
faintly fluorescent, immediately after voiding. When allowed to stand for
a little while human urine shows a light cloud (nubecula), which consists of
the so-called " mucus," and generally also contains a few epithelium
cells, mucus-corpuscles, and urate-granules. The presence of a larger
quantity of urates renders the urine cloudy, and a clay-yellow, yellowish-
brown, rose-colored, or often brick-red precipitate (sedimentum lateri-
tium) settles on cooling, because of the greater insolubility of the urates
at the ordinary temperature than at the temperature of the body.
This cloudiness disappears on gently warming. In new-born infants
the cloudiness of the urine during the first 4-5 days is due to epithelium,
mucus-corpuscles, uric acid, and urates. The urine of herbivora, which
is habitually neutral or alkaline in reaction, is very cloudy on account
of the carbonates of the alkaline earths present. Human urine may
sometimes be alkaline under physiological conditions. In this case it
is cloudy, due to the earthy phosphates, and this cloudiness does not
disappear on warming, differing in this respect from the sedimentum
lateritium. Urine has a salty and faintly bitter taste produced by sodium
chloride and urea. The odor of urine is peculiarly aromatic; the bodies
which produce this odor are unknown.
The color of urine is normally pale yellow when the specific gravity
is 1.020. The color otherwise depends on the concentration of the urine
and varies from pale straw-yellow, when the urine contains small amounts
of solids, to a dark reddish-yellow or reddish-brown in stronger con-
centration. As a rule the intensity of the color corresponds to the con-
centration, but under pathological conditions, exceptions occur such as
are found in diabetic urine, which contains a large amount of solids and
has a high specific gravity and a pale-yellow color.
The reaction of urine depends essentially upon the composition of the
food. The carnivora, as a rule, void an acid, the herbivora, a neutral
or alkaline urine. If a carnivore is put upon a vegetable diet, its urine
may become less acid or neutral, while the reverse occurs when an herbi-
vore is starved, that is, when it lives upon its own tissues, as then the
urine voided is acid.
The urine of a healthy man on a mixed diet has an acid reaction,
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
