Abstract
The fact that the acidity of the urine decreases after meals is well known, and this decrease has been commonly attributed to the secretion of hydrochloric acid by the stomach during the process of digestion, but there are comparatively few experiments recorded in which direct comparison between urine studies and analyses of the acid content of the stomach by the newer methods have been made. In the series of cases presented determinations of hydrogen-ion concentration, titratable acidity, ammonia, and in some instances, total nitrogen, were made on urine collected at two-hour intervals through the day from patients who had been studied for hyperacidity or anacidity of the stomach by the usual method of fractional gastric analysis. Those cases which showed free hydrochloric acid in the stomach showed the “alkaline tide” in the morning, and usually in the afternoon as well, while the cases which did not show hydrochloric acid, with one possible exception, did not show the tide.
The depth and duration of the alkaline tide did not correspond with the relative amounts of hydrochloric acid found in the gastric contents, or with the form of the acid curve. Determination of the alkaline tide furnished a method for checking the findings in the gastric juice, and has been found useful in establishing a possible anacidity in cases where satisfactory gastric analyses could not be obtained.
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