On the morbid conditions of the urine, dependant upon derangements of digestion / by Charles Henry Ralfe.

  • Ralfe, C. H. (Charles Henry), 1842-1896.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the morbid conditions of the urine, dependant upon derangements of digestion / by Charles Henry Ralfe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    follows the contraction of muscles, in which the con- traction wave gives rise to sarcolactic, carbonic, and other volatile fatty acids, and probably glycerin-phos- phoric acid. Of these acids the carbonic passes directly into the blood in a free state. With regard to the other acids, their distribution and combination with the inorganic bases, likewise set free by the process of tissue oxidation, is so highly complicated that little is known about them. It is probable, however, that the lactic and other organic acids are converted in carbonates, probably acid (bi-) carbonates, and that some portion of the phosphoric acid enters the blood as acid sodium phosphate; since Maly* has conclusively determined the presence of acid sodium phosphate and acid sodium carbonate (bicarbonate), the latter an acid salt with an alkaline reaction. In spite, however, of this constant entrance of acid into it, the blood of the living body is always alkaline, no doubt because the chief acid salt (sodium bicarbonate) has an alkaline reaction. What the degree of alkalescence of normal blood is has not been determined, but it is probable that, like the temperature and specific gravity, it has certain definite limits which cannot be passed in either direction without causing disturbance of healthy nutrition. In fact, great difficulty is experienced in reducing the alkaline reaction of the blood.f Hoffmann, who fed pigeons for a considerable time on food yielding only an acid ash (yolk of egg), found that however great the tendency of uric acid and of the acid salts of phosphoric acid to combine with bases, yet these were # Untersuchungen fiber die Mittel zur Safirebildung im Orga- nismus. R. Maly. ' Z. fur Phys. CMmie/ 1877. + '< Ueber der Uebergang von freien Safirer durch das alkaliscbe Blut in den Ham. ' Z. fur Biologie,' vii.