EXPERIMENT IV.
Instead of putting the urine into a common apparatus, if a glass syphon with two platina wires be employed (Plate III. fig. 5.), the urine becomes limpid on the one side, and turbid on the other. The substance detached from the urine
afterwards appears in the form of flakes, which are attracted by the platina wires. I observed this phænomenon for the first time in the company of those celebrated chemists Fourcroy and Vauquelin, while they were performing Galvanic experiments in their own laboratory.
EXPERIMENT V.
The substance above mentioned, which was precipitated to the bottom, when separated by filtration and dried, weighed about the fourth of a grain, and the fluid separated from it was of a greenish colour. On examining the earthy deposit of this urine, we obtained sulphate of lime by adding to it sulphuric acid.
EXPERIMENT VI.
Having exposed to the action of the pile, in the same manner, four ounces of urine voided by a person with jaundice, I obtained an earthy sediment, the weight of which was nearly equal to that above mentioned. The liquor separated from it was transparent, inclining a little to black. By the same chemical process I obtained sulphate of lime, though the sediment of the urine was somewhat dark, and afforded a portion of carbon and bile which inflamed in the fire.
EXPERIMENT VII.
Having repeated the above experiments with different kinds of urine, I observed in general, that Galvanism, by a peculiar attraction, separates from urine the sulphates and muriates united to a portion of the bile, and also to carbon, which in a great part are precipitated to the bottom of the vessel: the other part, which remains attached to the wires, exhibits a regular saline crystallization, of so singular a form that it seems worthy of becoming an object of further research to chemists.
The examination of urine voided by persons labouring under different kinds of disease, seems to be an object sufficient to excite the curiosity of physicians. To expose to the action of Galvanism artificial aëriform fluids, analogous to those which act a part in the animal œconomy, might also be attended with advantage. For this purpose it will be convenient to employ the apparatus represented in [Plate III.] fig. 7, which was lately constructed, with great precision, by M. Dumoutier at Paris. The whole artifice consists in a vertical metal tube, which can be raised up or pushed down. It is furnished with a stop-cock, and the tub in which the apparatus is placed has another. If the inverted bell be filled with water, and connected, by means of the vertical tube, with the apparatus which is to supply the gas, on opening the lower cock, the water will descend in the bell,