On the Action of the Blood. 121 



rio-ht kidney, on account of its connexions with the liver, and to 

 allow an interval of fifteen days between this operation and the 

 following. The first, if well performed, affects in no respect the 

 health of the animal, whether it be carnivorous or herbivorous. 

 At the end of three days the wound is cicatrized, and no unplea- 

 sant symptoms appear. When the animal loses the second kidney, 

 it is rarely affected before the third day. During this interval the 

 wound i» closed ; the animal resumes its liveliness and activity ; 

 it eats well, drinks little, sleeps as usual; its temperature, breath- 

 ing, and pulse do not vary in any very decided manner. But on 

 the expiration of this period, brown, copious, and very liquid 

 stools, as well as vomitings of the same nature, announce the dis- 

 turbance introduced into the constitution. Febrile exacerbations 

 raise the heat to 43° C, while at other times it sinks to 33°. The 

 pulse becomes small, hard, and rapid; the number of beats amount- 

 ing occasionally to 200 in a minute. The respiration is frequent, 

 short, and, at the last periods, oppressed. Finally, all the above 

 symptoms are aggravated, the debility augments, and the animal 

 dies between the fifth and the ninth day. If the two kidneys be 

 extracted at once, the resulting inflammation abridges this period, 

 and the subject does not last beyond the fourth or fifth day. 

 The examination of the dead body, exhibits constantly the fol- 

 lowing appearances. 1. The effusion of a clear limpid serum into 

 the ventricles of the brain ; the quantity amounting sometimes to 

 an ounce, in a dog of middle size. 2. The lungs seem to be a 

 little denser than in the healthy state; and the bronchia contain 

 much mucus. 3. The liver appears more or less inflamed, and 

 the gall-bladder is filled with a greenish, or deep-brown bile. 

 4. The intestines contain abundance of liquid faecal matter, of the 

 same colour with the bile. 5. The bladder of urine is powerfully 

 contracted. To these symptoms there is sometimes superadded, 

 particularly in herbivorous animals, a dangerous inflammation 

 from the operation. 



Considering that a dog of middle size, in its healthy state, se- 

 cretes a dram and upwards of urea in the 24 hours, MM. Prevost 

 and Dumas entertained the hope of deciding the question relative 

 to the functions of the kidney, by the examination of the blood of 

 the nephrotomized animals. They were bled when their feeble and 

 languishing health made it be presumed that they had only a short 

 time to live : and their blood was examined with attention. It 

 was first of all perceived to be more serous than the blood of the 

 same animals in the healthy state, and the serum itself contained 

 a more considerable proportion of water. This ought to be ex- 

 pected, if we bear in mind that the cutaneous transpiration is null 

 in these animals, and that it cannot therefore restore the equi- 

 librium which the annihilation of the kidneys has just destroyed. 

 The serum and clot, dried as usual, were treated with boiling water 

 as long as this menstruum had any perceptible action on them 



