Uraemia

Uraemia, the condition in which, owning to defective excretory action on the part of the kidneys, certain products are retained within the system, and circulate in the blood. The chief phenomena produced by such retention are cardiac hypertrophy, thickening of the smaller arterioles, dropsy, and certain congestions and inflammations. But the characteristic symptoms commonly spoken of as uraemic symptoms are more particularly the nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, hurried respiration, drowsiness, coma, and convulsions, whih sometimes occur. When the more serious of these symptoms are present, the patient is said to suffer from an uraemic fit.