“Now, if the excretion of the uric acid always took place easily, we should not have much trouble about its formation, but it is this excretion which constitutes the difficulty. Uric acid and the acid salts of the uric acid dissolve with difficulty in cold water; but more easily in warm; still, one gramme of uric acid requires from 7 to 8 litres of water at the temperature of the body for its solution. The acid urate of soda dissolves in 1100 parts of cold and 124 parts of boiling water. The ammonia salts and the salts of the alkaline earths do not dissolve nearly so easily.
“The ‘warm water’ which keeps the uric acid and the uric acid salts dissolved in the body is the blood and tissue fluids. Serious disturbances must take place if this fluid becomes cooler or diminished in quantity; for a deposit of crystalline uric acid would occur in the body.
“A person who has to daily excrete 2 grammes of uric acid, is constantly liable to this precipitation, as he may at any time lose large quantities of water through perspiration. It is, therefore, undoubtedly safer to have the uric acid combined with soda, as an acid urate; but where is soda to be obtained if it is absent from the blood, owing to dysæmia?
“The more acid the urine is, the more easily will a precipitation of the uric acid occur in the organism—for instance, in the kidneys or bladder. The urine of a person eating flesh contains a large amount of uric acid, as we have seen before; it is also strongly acid in reaction whereas the urine of herbivorous animals is generally alkaline in reaction....
“A very acid urine rich in uric acid is also produced by salt meat and salt fish, because in the process of salting, the basic salts (basic alkaline phosphates and carbonates) pass into the pickle water and neutral common salt takes their place. Russian physicians have told me that in certain parts of Russia, where the people eat a great deal of salt fish, urine stones are frequent.... Now, if we wish to prevent by the use of alkalies the formation of uric acid sediments, or gradually to dissolve such concretions as have already formed in the bladder, it is certainly more rational to prescribe a diet of fruits and potatoes than to order alkaline mineral waters—which, when taken constantly, may produce all sorts of disturbances.