PHOSPHATIC DIATHESIS, or PROS PHATURIA. The excretion in excessive amounts of the earthy salts of phosphoric acid in the urine. Phosphoric acid is excreted in com bination with the alkaline bases, sodium and potassium, and the earthy bases. calcium and magnesium. The alkaline phosphates form about two-thirds of the whole, and are always held in solution; the earthy phosphates form about one third and are spontaneously precipitated under certain circumstances as phosphatic deposits and calculi. One of the causes of such deposition is an alkaline condition of the urine. The urine in health may be temporarily alkaline from eating much fruit or vegetables containing citrates. tar trates, or malates of potassium and sodium. These are converted into carbonates in the intes tines and absorbed as such into the blood, and diminish the acidity of the urine or render it alkaline. The urine is sometimes turbid from a white deposit of the amorphous calcium phos phate (Ca,P,O,). This may he mixed with a crystalline phosphate (CaHPO, 2H20), the so called stellar phosphate, or a phosphate of mag nesia (Alg,,P,O,). A more common condition.
however, is that observed when a feebly acid or neutral urine is heated and a thick white deposit or turbidity occurs. In urine which has under gone aminoniacal fermentation there occurs a precipitate of the ammonio-magnesium or triple phosphate (.1igNII,P0.± in the form of minute triangular prisms.
it has been thought that there is a relation be tween the activity of the nervous system and the excretion of phosphoric acid. An increased amount is seen in the urine after excessive men tal work or worry. This phenomenon is also ob served in many diseases characterized by wasting and debility, such Its phthisis, leueocythatmia, acute yellow atrophy of the liver, and severe anemias. The old term 'phosphatic diathesis.' signifying a constitutional tendency or habit of body that produced or promoted a deposition of the phosphates from the urine, is no longer recognized.