OF ALBUMINURIA. 13 



Having now, I trust, satisfactorily proved that the 

 only condition necessary for the exudation of al- 

 bumen, and its subsequent appearance in any secre- 

 tion, is a certain decree of congestion of the secreting; 



< ^j C5 



gland, it only remains for me to show that such a 

 state of the kidneys may exist in all those diseases 

 which are attended with albuminous urine. 



I need not again recapitulate any of the facts and 

 arguments before advanced, to show that in acute 

 nephritis a very high degree of congestion must na- 

 turally be present in the inflamed organ ; but, taking 

 this fact for granted, would next direct attention to 

 the bloody and highly albuminous urine secreted 

 in this disease, and to the corroboration which this 

 fact, and the corresponding result obtained in the 

 experiments hereafter mentioned, furnish in support 

 of the correctness of the above rule, and more espe- 

 cially of that part of it which assumes the existence 

 of a relation between the proportion of albumen in 

 the urine and the degree of congestion in the kidney. 

 It would seem that the intense decree of congestion 



O O 



accompanying acute glandular inflammation may 

 also explain another effect of the latter, viz. the 

 diminution or suppression of the secretion. For 

 independently of its action in exhausting the nervous 

 energy of the part and the healthy sensibility of the 

 capillaries, it is evident from the anatomical structure 

 of glands, and from the manner in which the capil- 

 laries surround the minute divisions of the excretory 

 ducts, that when the former become much swollen 

 from distension the pressure of their expansion must 

 necessarily tend to compress and approximate the 



