CLINICAL STUDIES IN RENAL DISEASE. III. ACI- DOSIS IN CHRONIC GLOMERULONEPHRITIS*

UREMIA is a toxic state associated with an abnormal accumulation of nitrogen bodies in the blood. It is characterized clinically by anorexia, nausea, vomiting, weakness, restlessness, headache, drowsiness or coma. The exact nature of the toxemia of uremia is not known, although such sub-stances as urea, uric acid, creatinine, phosphates, sulphates are present in the blood in excessive amounts. It was Bright himself who first designated as uremia the group of symptoms characteristic of renal failure, because he thought these symptoms were due to a retention of urea in the blood. Bright regarded urea as a highly toxic substance but it is now gen-erally acknowledged that he was mistaken, for in Bright's disease there may be a very high concentration of urea in the blood without symptoms of tox-emia. It is to be stressed, however, that uremia is always associated with marked urea retention in the blood as well as in the tissues and the demon-stration of this retention establishes the diagnosis. The toxemia characteristic of the uremia resulting from Bright's diseas