Urinary tract

“ Albumen is present in the urine, often in large amount, but its presence there is readily accounted for by the vaso-motor paralysis, and the impoverished condition of the blood, which is still further aggravated by this, its symptom. Casts are often found, but are usually small and medium sized light granular, and hyaline. Epithelial and fatty casts occasionally occur, but it is probable that, in these cases, renal disease had commenced before the chloral was used to excess. Hemorrhage from the kidneys and, indeed, from the whole urinary tract, is sometimes found. ”

“ This collection takes place in the kidney, the ureters (the vessels that convey the urine to the bladder) , the bladder, and sometimes in the urethra. The stone so formed varies in its composition and size, and is one of the saddest ills that can befall human nature. Hence the importance of watching, and attending to every urinary disturbance, of which gravel forms a prominent feature, the treatment of which has been already stated; but which, as it involves more practised judgment than a non-professional invalid can be supposed to possess, had better be intrusted only to professional hands. ”

“ Cold air and cold water will increase the quantity of urine by decreasing the absorption from the bladder; and neutral and alcalious salts and cantharides by stimulating the neck of the bladder to discharge the urine as soon as secreted; and alcohol as gin and rum at the beginning of intoxication, if the body be kept cool, occasion much urine by inverting the urinary lymphatics, and thence pouring a fluid into the bladder, which never passed the kidnies. ”

“ In such cases the bladder often attains a very large size. At first the accumulation produces all the uneasy symptoms formerly mentioned, but after some time these subside, and the urine drains away according as it is secreted, without, however, the original accumulation and tumour being diminished. This state of the urinary system is very common in old people, who neglect natural calls to empty the viscus during the night, or while sitting socially after dinner. The uneasiness gradually goes off, and when they at length think of making water, none can be got to flow. ”

“ Where the inconvenience thus detailed is present, the quantity of fluids must by degrees be diminished, the general state of health must be studied. Dieting and warm-bathing are two sheet-anchors, if properly applied. All remedies tending to afford strength to the urinary system must be had recourse to; and where the bladder loses any of its retentive power, I entertain the greatest benefit from an injection.
The next form of urinary disturbance of a proximate nature to the one just described, is also where the urine is discharged in large quantities ”

“ In most diseases the quantity of urinary water is diminished, especially in those in which the activity of the circulation is impaired. There are diseases, however, more especially the granular kidney and certain forms of chronic Bright’s disease, in which the quantity of urinary water is considerably increased, notwithstanding the profound anatomical changes that have occurred in the kidney. There are two forms of suppression of the urine: one is obstructive suppression, seen where the ureter is blocked by stone or other morbid process ”

“ However speedily soap and lime-water may dissolve the greatest part of urinary stones out of the body, yet [215] being mixed with the aliment and humours of the stomach and guts, and afterwards with the whole mass of blood, it is impossible but their force must be greatly impaired before they arrive with the urine at the bladder. ”

“ Actual retention of urine, that is, urinary secretion passed into the bladder, but retention in the latter viscus by inanition, stricture, or other obstruction, naturally cannot continue any great length of time without mechanically rupturing the vesical walls; but suppression of urine or absolute anuria may last an astonishingly extended period. Of the cases of retention of urine, Fereol mentions that of a man of forty-nine who suffered absolute retention of urine for eight days, caused by the obstruction of a uric acid calculus. ”

“ Should a person at any time feel symptoms of indigestion, and be afraid of the consequences, a little of his own urine will relieve all unpleasant sensations and expedite digestion, but this can only be resorted to by people of no caste.
933 Monje مونجي.—The leaf and external fibrous covering of a kind of reed like grass, used to make rope. It is equally cold and hot; useful in acne, disorders of blood, diseases of the eyes, and all complaints affecting the urinary bladder, or urethra.
934 Mooser موسر.—Sweet, bitter, heavy; promotes appetite, cures piles and disorders of wind ”

“ The urinary apparatus (consisting of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra) is known to be the principal emunctory for eliminating and voiding the detritus formed by the continual decay of the parts comprising the animal economy. The urine is this detritus in a state of solution. The components of urine are chemically similar to those of calculi, and as the components of the one vary according to the disintegration occurring at the time in the vital alembic, so do those of the other. ”

“ The enlargement of this lobe produces an effect which is not generally known, and leads medical practitioners into an error respecting the nature of the complaint. The orifice of the urinary bladder, which is the lowest part in the natural state, is raised up in proportion to the increase of this lobe; so that none of the contents below that level can be expelled, although whatever is above it is allowed with more or less difficulty to pass out. In this way the person never evacuates more than one half or one third of the urine contained in the bladder ”

“ In urine we recognize what the bile has done with the food; the urine is the fluid nutritive system, and consequently the fluid organism "in toto;" the sexual blood, or sexual bile.
2340. The urine is the purest mirror or reflex of the bodily condition, and hence ourology or the doctrine of urine is of the most universal importance in semeiotics or symptomatic pathology: the ureters correspond to the tracheal branches or bronchi; thus, the urinary cyst to the trachea; the urethra to the larynx.
2341. In many animals the ureters open directly into the cloaca, as in many Fishes, Reptiles. ”

“ Neither the kidneys, ureters, nor [218] bladder, were loaded or crusted with any calcarious matter; an effect most unjustly ascribed to soap and lime-water, since in the urinary passages, to which the air has no access, they cannot deposite their calcarious part [137] ; and since the white stuff observable in the urine of such patients, as take these medicines in large quantities, is only the usual sediment of the urine changed in its nature and colour, with, perhaps, some of the dissolved particles of the stone [138] . ”

“ Ger. blase) , the membranous sac in animals which receives the urine secreted from the kidneys. The word is also used for any similar sac, such as the gall-bladder, the swim-bladder in fishes, or the small vesicle in various seaweeds.
BLADDER AND PROSTATE DISEASES. The urinary bladder in man (for the anatomy see Urinary System) , being the temporary reservoir of the renal secretion, and, as such, containing the urine for longer or shorter periods, is liable to various important affections. ”

“ Scarcely an important organ of the body can suffer derangement without entailing a corresponding disorder of the urinary system. Nothing can be more striking than the mutual balance maintained between the liquid secretions of the skin and kidneys during hot and cold weather. In summer, when so much liquid exhales through the skin as sweat, comparatively little urine is passed, whereas in winter, when the skin is inactive, the urine is correspondingly increased. ”

“ The ureter or duct of the kidney begins at the hilum and descends on the back wall of the abdominal cavity to open into the bladder. It is usually about 12 in. in length and as thick as a goose quill. At its termination it passes obliquely through the coats of the bladder, so that when the bladder is distended:sewn the lumen of its end is closed. The urinary bladder is a membranous bag lying in the pelvic cavity directly behind and above the dorsal surface of the pubes. In the foetus and infant, however, the bladder lies in the abdomen, not in the pelvis. ”

“ I have known some persons kill themselves by introducing probes into the urinary passages, to remove, as they thought, somewhat that obstructed the discharge of urine, and others bring on a violent inflammation of the bladder, by using strong diuretics, as oil of turpentine, &c. ”

“ An abundant flow of urine might perhaps carry off more rapidly such individuals as have found their way into the urinary passages, and, considering the character of the deposit described above as causing stoppage of the ureter, treatment directed against the uric-acid diathesis might diminish the risk of this particular form of trouble. ”

“ The effete, nitrogenous and more solid matters of the urine are probably eliminated by these glandular appendages, which take upon themselves the function of the urinary tubules of the kidneys of the higher animals; while the other great chamber, the genital, receives the fluid, perhaps little more than water, that may be supposed to flow from the arterial capillaries of the various organs placed within it. Assuming this to be the case, then this chamber will be related functionally to these capillaries as the capsule of the malphigian tuft is to the capillaries of the tuft itself. ”

“ When urine contains a larger amount of chemical constituents than it can conveniently hold in solution, a certain quantity crystallizes out, and may be deposited in the kidney or in the bladder. If the crystals run together in the kidney the resulting concretion may either remain in that organ or may find its way into the bladder, where it may remain to form the nucleus of a larger vesical calculus, or, especially in the case of females, it may, while still small, escape from the bladder during micturition. ”

“ In many instances, too, the urinary passages are affected, the patient being harassed with frequent, painful and difficult micturition, swelling of the penis, and pain in the region of the bladder, or, if a female, 238with burning pain of the vagina and excoriation of the labia. [618] Sometimes the irritation of the urinary organs is so great as to be attended with total suppression of urine, as in a case related by Guilbert of Montpellier, in which this symptom continued several days. ”

“ Urolithī′asis, lithiasis; Urol′ogy, urinology; U′romancy, divination by urine; Uroplā′nia, the abnormal presence of urine in any part of the body; Uropoiē′sis, the formation of urine.—adj. Uropoiet′ic.—ns. Urorrhā′gia, excessive micturation; Urorrhē′a, Urorrhœ′a, involuntary passage of urine.—adj. Uroscop′ic (same as Urinoscopic) .—ns. U′roscōpist, one skilled in urinoscopy; U′roscopy (same as urinoscopy) ; Urō′sis, any disease of the urinary organs. [Fr.,—L. urina; cog. with Gr. ouron, Sans. vāri, water.]
Urite, ū′rīt, n. the sternite of an abdominal segment of an insect. [Gr. oura, a tail.] ”

“ Of the Urine in Disease and after Death—Urinary Calculi.—To the chemist, the indications of disease of the urinary and digestive organs, formed by changes in the composition of urine, are most valuable. The majority of the substances which are taken into the circulation, but are incapable of assimilation to our organs, are thrown off by this secretion, and hence a variety of medicinal substances may be traced to it after having been ingested, sometimes quite unaltered, [Pg 121] at others modified in their natures. ”

“ The causes of prolapsus of the urethral mucous membrane are numerous, but those that are best known are long-continued congestion of the membrane, urethral and cystic irritation causing frequent urination and vesical tenesmus. Chlorotic and greatly debilitated women are said to be predisposed to it, as also old prostitutes. The few cases that I have seen were in women over fifty years of age, and all of them were weak, nervous patients who had suffered from some organic disease or functional derangement of the urinary organs. ”

“ On introducing the catheter sometimes part of the urine will come away and not the whole, which is difficult to explain; but may arise from the weakness of the muscular fibres of the bladder; which are not liable suddenly to contract themselves so far as to exclude the whole of the urine. In some old people, who have experienced a long retention of urine, the bladder never regains the power of completely emptying itself; and many who are beginning to be weak from age can make water a second time, a few minutes after they supposed they had emptied the bladder. ”

“ Internal symptoms, rectal exploration, vaginal, urethral, straining, ureters, bladder, calculi, neoplasms, prostate, urethritis.
External Symptoms. With inflammatory or painful affections of the urinary organs the animal tends to roach the back or loins, tuck up the abdomen, move the hind limbs stiffly and with a straddling gait, protract and withdraw the penis which may be semi-erect, retract and drop the testicles alternately, and stretch himself and strain to pass urine without success. Lying down and rising may be accomplished with marked effort and groaning. ”

“ The presence of the growth may be determined by sounding the bladder, by the cystoscope, and by the finger in the rectum. If the growth invades the outlet, retention of urine may occur, and the surgeon may be compelled to open the bladder from the front of the abdomen. In cases where operation is out of the question, washing the bladder with hot boracic lotion may give great relief. The treatment of cancer of the bladder by operation is, as a rule, unsatisfactory, because of the close proximity of the growth to the ureters and to the rectum. ”