Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/744

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triangular point ; its belly-fins arc fuftained by a very rigid and ftrong fpine. Its long fin, behind the anus, is all the way fupported by flexile and fhort fpines, and has one very ftrong and rigid one before it ; and it has only one fin on the back, which reaches nearly to the tail, and is all the way of an equal breadth, and fupported by rigid and prickly rays. Its tail is very deeply forked. Its fcales are all of a fine filvery white, with fome faint caft of a pale but bright red ; its belly- fins are white, and its back-fin and tail are reddifh. Its fide- lines are broad, and of a fine red; and over thefe, and under them, near the tail, there is on each fide a large black fpot. Marggrave's Hift. Brafil. Ray's Ichthyogr. p. 338.

URINARIA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the common dandelion. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

URINE {Cyd.) — The fecretion of Urine, as alfo that of perfpi- ration, is confiderably influenced by the paffions. See the ar- ticle Perspiration.

Dr. Rega mentions the opinion of fome modern authors, who imagine that our drink pafles through the coats of the ftomach and bladder, c?V. when it is fo quickly evacuated by Urine^ as it is obferved to be after drinking feveral mineral waters and other liquors. He endeavours to prove, by an eafy cal- culation of the quantity of Urine fecreted in the kidneys, that they are capable of furnifhing all the quantity obferved at any time. And laftly, he mentions the fullnefs and great frequency of the pulfe, after drinking thefe liquors, as a proof of their being mixed with the blood. Med. Eff. Edinb. The fpecific gravity of the human Urine, made in the night- time, has been found greater than that made in the day. Hence Dr. Bryan Robinfon b infers, that Urine draws off more con- tents from the blood in fleep, than when bodies are awake ; and confequently that natural fleep is a very good fign in fe- vers, in which the blood abounds more with contents than it does in health.— [ b Of the Food and dtfeharges of Human Bo- dies, p. 85.]

The Urirn of phthifical people is faid to be always fpecifically heavier than that of people in health, or in any other difeafe. We have frequent inftances of peoples voiding by Urine much greater quantities of liquids than they take into the Ho- rn ach in the time ; but this, though a feeming paradox, is ea- fily explained, by confidering how very (mall a part only of what we call folids, is really folid. Chemiftry fhews us that the far greater part of our food may be procured in a fluid form by diftillation ; and on this principle alone, fo long as the quantity of Urine voided is not more than that of the meat and drink together, the miracle ceafes. There are, however, inftances of the quantity of Urate greatly exceeding that of

. both. Dr. Wittie, in this cafe, fuppofes the converting of air into water to make up the over- proportion ; but it is more rationally accounted for by the decreafe of the patient's flefh all the time. Our own bodies, as well as the foods we take in for their fupport, are compofed of a greater proportion of fluids ; and the real folid matter is fo very little, that when, bythecourfe of a difeafe, thofe fluids, which mould remain locked up in the texture of the folids, and increafe their bulk, are drained and feparated from them, it is no wonder that the difchargc be vaftly difproportioned to the fupplies, when the body itfelf goes off with them. We have indeed accounts not eafily foluble on thefe principles, nor any way but by the fcheme of converting air into water before- mentioned ; but till we are certain that the quantities and proportions are accu- rately noted in them, it will be rath to conclude any thing from them.

Among accounts of this kind, we have thefe recorded in the Fhdofophical Tranfaftions from Dr. Wittie and others. A perfon at Hull, in a diabetes, voided twenty-four pints of Urine every eight and forty hours, for many weeks together, during which time his mufcular parts were all in a manner diflblved into Urine ; and the weight of the Urine, voided in thefe weeks, according to the Doctor's computation, greatly exceeded the whole weight of his body, and of all that he had eaten or drank in the time. Sir Kenelm Digby tells us a thing, which, if we may credit it, calls for a fupply greater than any thing but the converting a great part of the air taken- in in refpiration could give : This is of a nun, who voided two hundred pints of water as from her bladder every twenty-four hours, for fome weeks together. There is another relation of a fick maid in Italy, who voided thirty-fix pints of Urine every twenty-four hours, for the fpace of fixty days, till at the length the whole quantity voided amounted to one thou- fand feven hundred and forty pounds ; a weight greatly fupe- rior to that of her own body, and all that had been received into it in the time. The whole credit of thefe relations lies on the character of their authors ; and we are to remember, that the ftrongeft of them comes from an author who, in another part of his works, has given a receipt for creation ; a method, as he exprcfTcs it, of making live crawfifh. Philof. Tranf. N°. 52. See the articles Solid and Fluid. In order to the preparing the phofphorus, and indeed moft of the other preparations of Urine, the firft ftep is to reduce that liquor to the confiftence of a rob or thick extract ; thofe who have worked on this fubjedt fufficiently. know, how abomina- bly naufeous and difagreeable a talk this is. The operator alone is not the perfon who is almoft: poifoned by it, but the

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whole neighbourhood is> rnTecled ; and it is well known, thai our Godfrey, who ufed to prepare large quantities of this- fubftance, was always obliged to keep a houfe in the fields to perform this part of the proceii; in.

There is an eafy and excellent method propofed by Stahl for the performing this troublesome bufmefs, by means of con- denfation by cold or freezing. There needs no more than to expofe the proper quantity of Urine to fome frofty nights in winter ; or at any time of the year to our Ice-houfes, or other places where ice is prefer ved all the year round. The. froft will, in this cafe, aftect a large part of the Urine, but not the whole - y and the liquid part being feparated from the folid ice, it will be found that the watery parts alone have fuffered the freezing, and that all the uu&uous and faline ones are left behind in the unfrozen part, which is, by repeated freezings of its yet remaining aqueous part, at length reduced to that fort of rob which is required for all the purpofes, of diftillation, and that without any trouble or oftenfivenefs, ei- ther to the operator or any body clfe. The power of con-* denfation by freezing in this manner, extends to wine, vine- gar, and all fermented liquors ; but it operates differently on the feveral different ones, and is to be regulated according to their natures. The natural cold of our climate is feldom too great for any of the liquors we defire to condenfe j that is, it is never fo great as to condenfe the whole into ice. It often is not fuiEciently great to condenfe the aqueous part, even after ever fo many repetitions. In this cafe, it may be proper, to bring in the ufc of the common freezing mixtures, made with ice, or fnow and fait. To fuit the artificial degree of cold, in thefe cafes, requires care and experience, and is almoft as nice a point as the fuiting the degrees of heat in the operation!* of chemiftry. Stabl de Concentr. Vin. Shaw's Chemicai E flays.

When Urine has been reduced to a rob by condenfation by freezing, it is found to vary very remarkably, according as it was taken, either frefh, or half putrified, to make the opera- tion. That which was made frefh remains in this ftate tolera- bly clear, and of a dull yellow colour, and almoft' without fmell j but that which was taken half putrified, remains of a colour between brown and red, or fomewhat deeper, like the brown ftrong beer, and becomes intolerably foetid, if fet for any time in a warm place ; but that which was condenfed frefh, is not liable to this accident, but may be kept two or three years in the ftate of rob, and will never grow foetid, nor fmell much like Urine, Stabl de Concentration. Glauber has taught the world to believe, that there is nothin* fo deftru£tive to vegetables of all kinds as Urine, which, he fays, by means of the fal armoniac that it contains, burns up all the roots. This is certainly true of Urine, and of dung too, when kid on in too great quantities ; but it is certain that Urine is as fafe as dung, and as profitable, when laid on in a /paring and proper manner. Dung is of no ufe to land,, but by its fermentation ; but the beft of all things to hafteta and perfect that fermentation is Urine. The Dutch are per- fectly fenfible of this, and are as careful to preferve the Urine of their cattle as the dung. Mortimer's Hufbandry. Bloody Urine, Miclus Cruentus^ in medicine, the name of a very troublefome and often dangerous difeafe; it is a voiding of pure blood by the urinary paflages, and takes its origin from a congeftion of blood in the emulgents, and is the method ftho' an unhappy one) taken by nature to difchargc the load ' of a plethora, and give the mafs of blood freer room to circu- late. This is the natural or fimple Mittus Cruentus ; but, befide this, there is another accidental one, arifing from anv injury of the veffels from a rough ftone in the kidney. This, however, is a much lefs frequent cafe than is vulgarly ima- gined ; for there are great numbers of nephritic patients who have very large {tones in the kidneys, yet void no blood, and in many cafes, where this is a fymptom, it will be more juft to attribute it to the effect, of the iharp nephritic medicines, than to the action of the ftone. Signs of it. When a MiStus Cruentus is natural, it'ufually comes on tacitly, and without any previous fymptoms, or if there be any, they are only fome fenfations of a weight and preffure upon the loins : but when this is brought on by accidents, as by the rubbing of a ftone, or the like, it is always preceded by violent pains. The blood voided with the Urine is florid, and, after a time, fubfides perfectly from among it i but when there is an exulceration of the kidneys, the blood is al- ' tered in its texture and appearance, and fhewa itfelf like worms. Persons mo/lfubjecl to it. Thefe are old men of plethoric ha- bits ; but even with thefe it is a rare diftemper. When young men, or even middle-aged ones, are affe&ed with it, we are to feek for its origin in violent and preternatural caufes. Men are alfo, in general, more fubjeci to it than women ; but thefe are not wholly free from it. Caufes of it. Thefe are ufually a plethora, and an unnatural derivation of the hemorrhoidal blood to the kidneys, where the veffels burft i for it is very rarely, and never but from fome preternatural caufes, that they burft in the bladder. The common violent and preternatural caufes of this difeafe, 'are the ufe of the hot diuretics, of balfam of fulphur, of oil of amber, and, above all, of cantharides. Long riding on

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