FORMATION OF THE UKINE. 169 



Since the influence of the nervous system upon the secre- 

 tions has been so closely studied, it is evident that the pain 

 and disturbance consequent upon the accumulation of urine 

 above the ligated ureters must have an important reflex ac- 

 tion upon the secretions ; and this would probably interfere 

 with the vicarious elimination of urea and other excremen- 

 titious principles by the stomach and intestines. It is well 

 known to practical physicians that an arrest of these secre- 

 tions, in cases of organic disease of the kidneys, is liable to 

 be followed immediately by evidences of uraemia, and that 

 grave ursemic symptoms are frequently removed by the ad- 

 ministration of remedies that act promptly and powerfully 

 upon the intestinal canal. As additional evidence of the 

 great disturbance of the system, aside from the mere accu- 

 mulation of excrementitious principles in the blood, which 

 must result from tying the ureters, we have the intense dis- 

 tress and general prostration, always so prominent in cases 

 of nephritic colic, where there is only temporary obstruction 

 of one ureter. The pathological condition of the kidneys 

 which follows the operation of tying the ureters was observed 

 by Bicherand, many years ago, 1 and the observations of 

 Oppler, Perls, and Zalesky, on this subject are not entirely 

 novel. 8 



From a careful review of the important facts bearing 

 upon this question, there does not seem to be any valid 

 ground for a change in our ideas concerning the mode of 

 elimination of urea and the other important excrementi- 

 tious constituents of the urine. There is every reason to 



1 RICHERAND ET BfiRARD, Nouveaux elemens de physiologic, Paris, 1833, tome 

 it, p. 142. 



Richerand noted great disturbance in animals, thirty-six hours after tying 

 both ureters. In a cat on which this operation had been performed, death took 

 place on the third day. " The kidneys were swollen, softened, and, as it were, 

 macerated ; all the organs, all the humors, and the blood itself, participated hi 

 this urinous diathesis." (Loc. cit., p. 143.) 



8 MILNE-EDWARDS, Lemons sur la physiologic, Paris, 1862, tome vii., pp. 457, 

 459. 



