{ 298 ] 



SECT. XXXIV. 



OF THE URINE. 



489. BESIDES the nutritious (4) fluids and those 



which form a part of our system, others are superfluous 

 and excrementitious, commonly termed the excrements 

 of the second digestion, and are of two orders. The 

 one exhaled by perspiration, of which we treated 

 formerly; the other the urine, streaming from the 

 kidneys. 



490. The kidneys * are two viscera, situated at the 

 upper part of the loins on each side, behind the perito- 

 naeum; rather flattened; more liable than any other 

 organ to varieties of figure and number ; -f- suspended 

 by the emulgent vessels, J which are excessively large 

 in proportion to them; and imbedded in sebaceous 

 fat. (485) 



491. They are enveloped in a membrane of their 

 own, which is beautifully vascular; and each, espe- 

 cially during infancy, consists of eight, or rather more, 

 smaller kidneys, each of which again consists, as Ferrein 

 asserts, of seventy or eighty fleshy radii, denominated 

 by him pyramides albidae. 



* See Al. Schumlansky, 1. c. 



f See Ger. Blasius, Renum monstrosorum e.rcmpla, at the end of Bellini, de 

 s tructura et vsu renum. Amstel. 1665. 12ino. 



1 Eustachius, tabufep, 1 5, which belong to his classical \rork~Dc retains, 

 published in this great man's Opusc. anatum. Venet. 1564. 4to. same edition, 

 tab. xii. 



