THE INTERNAL SECRETION OF THE KIDNEY 44! 



renal internal secretion. Experiment showed that animals die 

 much more rapidly after the removal of both kidneys than after 

 ligature of both ureters, in spite of the fact that the retention of 

 urinary constituents is the same in both cases, and this fact seems 

 to bear a similar interpretation. Brown-Se"quard and d'ArsonVal 

 further showed that if renal extract obtained from guinea-pigs and 

 rabbits is injected into the veins of nephrectomized animals of the 

 same species, symptoms of uraemia will appear later, and will be 

 less intense in these animals than in control animals which have 

 not received similar treatment. In animals treated with renal 

 expressed juice, the duration of life was as long, or longer, than 

 in animals with ligature of both ureters. 



Lepine's observations have an important bearing upon the 

 passage of substances from the kidneys into the blood. He 

 found that the ligature of both ureters of rabbits produced a fall 

 in temperature, vomiting, and diarrhoea, terminating in death. 

 An entirely different symptom-complex resulted, however, when 

 the ureters were connected by means of cannulae with a vessel 

 containing normal saline solution, the pressure in the vessel being 

 higher than that in the ureter. This procedure produced, not a 

 fall, but a rise in temperature, dyspnoea and convulsions. Accord- 

 ing to Lepine, the filtrate of a kidney rubbed down in water, when 

 introduced into the blood, also produces a rise in temperature, 

 dyspnoea, and stronger movement ; and Lepine believes that 

 thermogenic and dyspnogenic constituents are present in renal 

 substance. 



E. Meyer, a pupil of Brown-Sequard's, next discovered that 

 the blood of ura?mic animals is inactive in normal animals, but 

 that, in nephrectomized animals, it produces a remarkable 

 dyspnceic slowing of respiration. In a second series of investi- 

 gations, Neyer studied the periodic respiration, resembling the 

 Cheyne-Stockes type, of urasmic dogs ; he found that this remark- 

 able ura^mic symptom is reduced by the injection of renal 

 expressed juice, as well as by the injection of normal defibrinated 

 blood, the effect being so marked that for a short time the respira- 

 tion becomes normal. Blood from the renal veins is said to 

 produce particularly good and well-marked results. 



These reports of prolonged life and improved ura?mic sym- 

 ptoms in nephrectomized animals after the administration of renal 

 extract or blood from the renal veins, have been tested by many 

 investigators (E. Vanni, Manzini, Vitzou, Ajello, and Parascan- 

 dalo, Mori, Bozzolo, Gilbert and Carnot, Spineanu, Maragliano, 

 Chatin and Guinard, Fiori), but with very conflicting results. A 

 definite pronouncement is hardly possible, however, seeing that 

 the duration of life in nephrectomized animals is, in any case, 

 very variable. As I know from my own experience, dogs and 

 rabbits sometimes live five to six days after the removal of their 

 kidneys, while other animals of the same species, operated upon 



