Leland Stanford Junior University Publications; University Series Volume 24 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ...kidney tissue is what clinicians now usually speak of as true uraemia; and in this condition the evidence that it is due to an inefficiency on the part of the kidneys to excrete some as yet unknown substance or substances has been accumulating rapidly in the last years. In regard to the changes in the composition of the urine and its sediment I wish to emphasize once more, as has been done often enough before, that the condition of the urine is a fairly accurate measure of the severity of the disease in the kidneys at a given time, and no measure at all of the extent of the damage to the renal tissue. Polyuria and hyposthenuria more particularly point to serious involvement of much kidney tissue, although of course other possible factors have to be taken into account. The records also bring out clearly that frequent careful urinanalyses are of great importance in the clinical recognition of the disease. It is impossible to condense the result of these observations into a few phrases, but our main conclusions might be formulated as follows: I. Diffuse glomerulo-nephritis is a disease which may occur in acute, subacute, or chronic form. 2. The etiology of the acute and subacute forms is evidently to be found in bacterial infection, and this is quite probably true of the chronic form. I 3. The bacteria concerned are commonly, but not necessarily, members of the streptococcus family. 4. It is probable that the continuance of the disease in the kidneys is due to the continuance of the infection in some often more or less hidden focus. 5. It is suggested that one should look upon the oedema, the hypertension, the arteriosclerosis, and certain uraemic manifestations merely as being frequently associated with nephritis, rather than...