| Description | Hassall shares observations on human urine, arriving at the following conclusions: firstly, he notes that blue indigo is frequently formed in human urine, the quantity being subject to the greatest variation. Secondly, for the formation of this indigo, it is in general necessary that the urine should be exposed to the air for some days in an open vessel, oxygen being absorbed and the blue indigo developed. From some of the cases recorded, it would appear, however, that blue indigo is occasionally formed in the system, and is voided as such in the urine. Thirdly, in the majority of the cases recorded by Hassall, it is likely that the blue indigo was derived from altered haematin. Fourthly, the urines in which the coloured indigo occurs in the largest quantity are usually of a pale straw colour, readily becoming turbid, alkaline, and of low specific gravity. Small quantities of indigo are however frequently found in urines possessing characters the very reverse, that is, in such as are deeply-coloured, acid, and of high specific gravity; but, as a rule, in these urines the blue pigment is usually absent. Lastly, the formation of blue indigo in urine must be regarded as a strictly pathological phenomenon, apparently associated with some general morbid condition, than essentially with disease of any one organ; although Hassall suggests there is reason for believing that the blue deposit is met with very frequently in Bright’s disease [nephritis or inflammation of the kidneys].
Marked on front 'Archives November 24/53'. Includes three figures showing blue colouring in specimens of human urine.
Subject: Chemistry / Biology / Medicine
Received 9 June 1853. Communicated by William Sharpey.
Written by Hassall at 9 Bennett Street, St James Street [London].
Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 6 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'On the frequent occurrence of indigo in human urine, and on its chemical and physiological relations'. |