Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

—a1852.] Bright's Disease. 419proportion offal in a hundred pnrts of dried kidney substance.In health the latter varies from 4*4 to 4 05 per cent. In morbusBrightii, it was found varying from 4*40 to 139. Generallyspeaking, the quantity of fat was greater when the diseasehad advanced to the third"^ stage, but this is not invariable ; andthe fact, that by chemical examination the quantity is oftenfound so much less than microscopic observation would lead U3to expect, must, according to Frerichs, be considered as aproof that we are not justified in naming as fat all those globuleswhich resemble it in form. In the kidney of a cat, andin that of a dog, the fat was found by Frerichs to vary from2720 to 32"50 percent. Both animals were perfectly healthy ;their urine contained not a trace of albumen, a sufficient proot"that morbus Brightii cannot be considered dependent solelyupon fatty degeneration.A statistical report, and tabular representation of the changesfound (post mortem)\x\ other organs, concludes the second chapterof the book. The cases are gathered from Bright, Christison,Gresjory, Martin Solon, Becquerel, Rayer, Bright andBarlow, Malmesten, and the author's own observation.The third chapter presents a short account of the generalcourse of the disease in its two forms, acute and chronic ; and" Special Symptomatolo-we pass from it to the fourth, entitledgy." In this the appearances (merely sketched before) aredescribed detail,—their frequency given numerically, theircausation examined,— and their clinical value in respect ofdiaornosis, prognosis, and treatment, pointed out.The symptoms are treated under the following heads r— I.Those of disordered uro-poesis,— embracing, (a) pain in theregion of the kidney ;(b) percussion and palpation ;(c) frequencyof micturition ;(d) changes of the urine. 2. Those ofchanged blood. 3, The habitus of the patient. 4. Dropsy.5. Changes in the action of the skin. G. L^rsemic intoxication,(chronic and acute.) 7. Disturbances in the functions of theprimae viae. 8. Pseudo-rheumatic pains.It would be impossible to present anything but the most unsatisfactoryanalysis of this chapter, if we attempted to embraceall its contents. We shall limit ourselves to those includedunder the 6th and 7th heads ; and we shall do so simply becausethe statements there made have more of novelty than the others,1. The Chronic Form of Urcemia.— This steals slowly andunobservedly upon its victim, and is in almost every instancefatal. In the early stages of Bright's disease, there is a peculiardulness, or sleepiness, in the expression of the face, and in thedemeanor of the patient. He complains of dull headache,—" light" feeling,— the eyes are expressionless,—the whole physr-