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CHAPTER XIV.
URINE.
Urine is the most important excretion of the animal organism; it
is the means of eliminating the nitrogenous metabolic products, also
the water and the soluble mineral substances; and in many cases it
furnishes important data relative to the metabolism, quantitatively
by its variation, and qualitatively by the appearance of foreign bodies
in the excretion. Moreover, in many cases we are able, from the chemical
or morphological constituents which the urine abstracts from the kidneys,
ureter, bladder, and urethra, to judge of the condition of these organs; and
lastly urinary analysis affords an excellent means of deciding the question
as to how certain medicinal agents or other foreign substances intro-
duced into the organism are absorbed and chemically changed. In this
respect, urinary analysis has furnished very important particulars especially
in regard to the nature of the chemical processes taking place within
the organism, and it is therefore not only an important aid to the
physician in diagnosis, but it is also of the greatest importance to the
toxicologist and the physiological chemist.
In studying the secretions and excretions, the relation must be
sought between the chemical structure of the secreting organ and the
chemical composition of its secreted products. Investigations with
respect to the kidneys and the urine have led to very few results from
this standpoint. Although the anatomical relation of the kidneys has
been carefully studied, their chemical composition has not been the sub-
ject of thorough analytical research. In cases in which a chemical
investigation of the kidneys has been undertaken, it has been in general
only of the organ as such, and not of the different anatomical parts.
An enumeration of the chemical constituents of the kidneys known at
the present time can, therefore, only have a secondary value.
In the kidneys we find proteins of different kinds. According to
Halliburton the kidneys do not contain any albumin, but only a
globulin and a nucleoprotein. The globulin coagulates at about 52° C,
and the nucleoprotein contains 0.37 per cent phosphorus. Lieber-
mann claims that the kidneys contain a lecithalbwnin, and he ascribes
to this body a special importance in the secretion of acid urines. The
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