RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 THE SWELLING OF COLLOIDS AND HYDROGEN ION CONCENTRATION JF Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics JO J Pharmacol Exp Ther FD American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics SP 449 OP 467 VO 5 IS 5 A1 LAWRENCE J. HENDERSON A1 WALTER W. PALMER A1 L. H. NEWBURGH YR 1914 UL http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/5/5/449.abstract AB No influence to increase colloidal swelling has ever been observed through the action of hydrogen ions varying within the ranges of acidity known to occur in the body or in the urine. A number of investigations are reported which make clear the quantitative relationship between hydrogen ion concentration and the swelling of fibrin and of gelatine plates. Such variations in osmotic pressure as may occur in autolysis and in a variety of other ways greatly influence colloidal swelling and also the swelling of bits of fresh kidney. A tendency to acidity in the organism is not commonly accompanied by oedema, but is usually quite independent of any known disturbance of the water equilibrium of the organism. Hence it is utterly fallacious to assume that any significance, as a cause of oedema, attaches to the frequent occurrence of a tendency to acidity—one of the commonest of pathological states—in oedema. A tendency to acidity of the urine often occurs apart from nephritis and albuminuria. Hence it is fallacious to argue that any significance, as a cause of nephritis, attaches to the frequent occurrence of this very common pathological condition in nephritis and albuminuria.