Note 695 — PART VIII.—THE OXALIC ACID GROUP OF POISONS.

The important fact of the oxalate-content of kidneys and urine, and the expulsion of casts, was first observed by Mitscherlich in 1854. He noticed in a rabbit, to which had been given 7·5 grms. of oxalic acid, and which had died in thirteen minutes, “renes paululum magis sanguine replete videbantur, in urina multa corpora inveniebantur, quæ tubulos Bellenianos explese videntur” (De acidi acetici, oxalici, tartarici, citrici, formici, et boracici, &c., Berlin).

[696] Rabuteau has discovered by experiment that even the oxalates of iron and copper are decomposed and separated by the kidneys. Gaz. Méd. de Paris, 1874.