Page:Love and its hidden history.djvu/81

 urea be in excess, there will form a number of rhomboidal, six-sided crystals, clearly discernible by the unassisted eye; but if they require magnifying, in order to be clearly seen, then give yourself no trouble on the score of urea. The remedy for its excess is avoidance of all stimulants, and the due administration of Phosodyn and Bromide of Ammonia.

There is a peculiar element in the urine called uric acid. When present in excess it has a very high color, either a heavy amber or reddish-brown, and a bit. of litmus paper wet with it instantly turns red. After being boiled, and suffered to cool, a crystalline sediment of a red color will be deposited, a little of which must be taken, placed on a slip of glass, and examined under the microscope, one of which, showing forty diameters, can be bought for a trifle. If groups of clearly defined crystals are seen, they are uric acid. Now heat the urine that has the sediment in it, and the uric acid will not dissolve until you add a few drops of liquor-potassa to the sediment. It is always present in moderate quantity in healthy urine, but when excessive is the cause of an immense deal of nervous, mental, and urinal trouble, because it is productive of millions of fine, sharp crystals, which, being taken up by the blood, are deposited all over the system, and when this is the case health, either of mind, morals, or body, is wholly impossible.

Ammonia, or salts containing it, is not often found in fresh urine, but by standing awhile it will decompose, and its nitrogeneous constituents will assume the form of ammoniacal compounds; hence it is frequently found to contain an excess of urate of ammonia, and in that case is high-colored, cloudy, turbid, dense, and heavy; and thousands there are who, because of that sediment appearing in their urine, have been frightened half out of their senses, and swindled of their dollars, by hundreds of conscienceless quacks who make a great parade over what they are pleased to term the "brick-dust" deposit, and sell any amount of "patent remedies" to cure it. Where it exists it can be easily tested, and quite as easily cured; for the same agents named above are especially effective in these cases also, for reasons hereinafter set forth. But it will be well to thoroughly test whether urate of ammonia be present or not, for the mere color of the sediment, pale fawn, reddish purple, or pink, is not always decisive, for several other alkaline bases, as soda and potash, may be combined