Notes on the Treatment of B. coli Infection of the Urinary Tract

the top of the medical profession as regards the correct principles. I resolved therefore to venture to put down the following lines in the hope that it will furnish a useful guide to a few of the readers at least. The standard treatment for this condition is to give alternate courses of? (1) Alkaline diuretics containing among other things potassium citrate and bicarbonate. The idea of this is to render the urine alkaline and thus make it an unfavourable medium for the growth of the organisms, which prefer an acid one. This will also be indicated when there is high fever and other constitutional symptoms. (2) Hexamine. This drug is one of the best urinary antiseptics that we possess and acts by liberating formaldehyde. A knowledge of chemistry tells us that the splitting up of hexamine occurs only in the presence of an acid, and consequently the best results are to be expected when the reaction of the urine is strongly acid. With this object in view acid sodium phosphate (NaH.,P04) is given to the patient, as this is the salt which is mainly responsible for the acid reaction of the normal urine. The commonest