Fig. 50.-Epithelial cells from the bladder, ureter, and pelvis of the kidney. (Dr. Wm. Roberts.)

Fig. 51.-Vaginal epithelium in the urine. (Dr. Wm. Roberts.)

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Tailed epithelium is found in the ureter and pelvis of the kidney, and sometimes the recognition of such is of value in the diagnosis of calculous pyelitis. (See Fig. 50.) Large scaly epithelium is often present as a contamination from the vagina. (See Fig. 51.)

SPERMATOZOA, BACTERIA, HAIRS, FIBRES, &c.

Spermatozoa are occasionally seen in varying numbers in the urine. They appear in large numbers in the urine after seminal emissions, whether physiological or morbid, and a few are often introduced into the urinary passages during straining at stool, &c. When present habitually they may afford evidence of spermatorrhoea. (See Fig. 52.)

Fig. 53.-Vibriones in urine (Dr. Wm. Roberts.)

Bacteria, fungi, &c.-Bacteria and vibriones appear readily in urines which stand some time, and appear more quickly if the reaction of the urine be alkaline or if the vessels used be imperfectly cleaned. They may be found in freshly passed urine if decomposition be going on within (in cases of paralysis of bladder requiring catheterization, &c.) (See Fig. 53.) Fungi of various kinds, with branching growths, are often found; these sometimes resemble tube-casts. Spores of globular shape likewise appear in various aggregations: when single, they resemble blood corpuscles. The rapid appear

ance of sporules (torula) sometimes directs attention to the possibility of the urine being saccharine, but torulæ appear in urines in which sugar cannot be detected. (See Figs. 54 and 55.)

Fig. 55.-Yeast or Sugar Fungus (Torula Cerevesiæ). Sporules and threads of thallus. (Dr. Wm. Roberts.)

Foreign matters.-Cotton, flax, fibres, straw, hairs, and feathers are often present in minute fragments from floating dust from the bedding, &c. Air-bells and oil globules (perhaps from an oiled catheter or an oily bottle) often puzzle the beginner. (See Fig. 56.)

CRYSTALLINE AND AMORPHOUS DEPOSITS.

URIC ACID can frequently be recognized as a red sand in the urinary deposits, lying at the very bottom and in the corners of the glass, or sometimes adhering to the sides, or entangled in the mucus. Although usually highly colored, the uric acid crystals thrown down from pale urines are sometimes almost colorless: uric acid itself is without color, it only attracts the pigment of the urine. The forms presented by uric acid crystals are very variable, but they may mostly be reduced to modifications of the rhomb. The plates of Dr. Beale give excellent representations of the variations

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and forms of aggregation usually met with. The following names applied by Dr. Roberts to the crystals may assist in their recognition :-quadrangular and oval tablets, cubes, six-sided tablets, lozenges and barrel-shaped figures, stars and spikes, and fan-shaped crystals. (Compare Fig. 57.)

Fig.56.-Extraneous matters found in Urine:-a, Cotton fibres; b, Flax fibres; c, Hairs; d, Air bubbles; e, Oil globules; f, Wheat starch; g, Potato starch; h, Rice-starch granules; i, Vegetable tissue; k, Muscular tissue; 7, Feathers.

The presence of a high color ofter leads us to suspect the nature of crystals which would otherwise be puzzling, and

the detection of transition forms from well-known shapes often serves to confirm our conjectures. Uric acid is very insoluble in water, and it does not disappear on heating the sediment, a distinction from the deposit of urates.

Uric

acid is not dissolved by acetic acid: this serves to discriminate colorless uric acid from certain crystalline forms of phosphate of lime. Uric acid is soluble in caustic alkalies, and alkalies administered internally often exercise a solvent power. Uric acid is sometimes passed, as crystals, from the bladder, and these may then be seen in the fresh urine as red particles, or as causing a general turbidity: they are, however, more often only formed and deposited by the urine after standing for a time: this being due partly to the cooling of the urine and partly to its increasing acidity after it is passed. The crystals often increase in size after a time. The addition of a drop or two of strong acid to normal urine precipitates uric acid in crystals. Sometimes the precipitate thrown down by the addition of acid to urine consists of a dense mass of amorphous urates which may resolve itself by and by into uric acid crystals. A sediment of uric acid crystals, on being kept till it becomes alkaline, may be converted into hedge-hog crystals of urate of soda.

URATES OR LITHATES are salts of uric acid combined