N OF THE URINE. All medical authors and physicians of
education, freely admit and even insist upon the importance of
critically examining the patient's urine, in all cases in which there is
reason to suspect disease of the kidneys or bladder. In chronic
affections it is particularly serviceable, especially in derangements of
the liver, blood, kidneys, bladder, prostate gland, and nervous system.
Many scholarly physicians have sadly neglected the proper inspection of
the urine, because they were afraid of being classed with the illiterate
"uroscopian" doctors, or fanatical enthusiasts, who ignorantly pretend
to diagnose correctly _all_ diseases in this manner, thus subjecting
themselves and their claims to ridicule. Nothing should deter one from
giving to this excretion the attention it deserves.

The urine which is voided when the system is deranged or diseased is
altered in its color and composition, showing that its ingredients vary
greatly. So important an aid do examinations of the urine furnish in
diagnosing many chronic ailments, that at the Invalids' Hotel and
Surgical Institute, where many thousands of cases are annually treated,
a chemical laboratory has been fitted up, and a skillful chemist is
employed, who makes a specialty of examining the urine, both chemically
and microscopically, and reporting the result to the attending
physicians. His extended experience renders his services invaluable.
With his assistance, maladies which had hitherto baffled all efforts put
forth to determine their true character, have frequently been quickly
and unmistakably disclosed.

MICROSCOPICAL EXAMINATION. This method of examination affords a quicker
and more correct idea of a deposit or deposits than any other method.
The expert, by simply looking at a specimen, can determine the character
of the urine, whether blood, mucus, pus, uric acid, etc., are present or
not. But when no deposit is present, then it is necessary to apply
chemical tests, and in many cases the quantity of the suspected
ingredient must be determined by analysis. As a detailed account, of the
various modifications which the urine undergoes in different diseases,
would be of no practical use to the masses, since they could not avail
themselves of the advantages which it would afford for correct
diagnosis, except by the employment of a physician who does not ignore
this aid in examining his patients, we shall omit all further details
upon the subject. For th