EXCRETION 199 



work of gaseous excretion being achieved conjointly, 

 by the lungs aided by cutaneous and intestinal transpira- 

 tion ; it, therefore, follows, that we must look, in a 

 great proportion of the diseases of these areas, for the 

 clue to their etiology and relief, or removal, in the 

 condition, as to closure, or patency, of the excretory 

 canals, and emunctories. 



Therapeutic, and other, agencies of the medical man, 

 must, to a great extent, be classified in accordance with 

 these physiologico-pathological conditions, and indications 

 for their use be found, according to the excretory area 

 and agency involved in the individual case ; accordingly 

 what are known as diuretic, purgative, diaphoretic, and 

 depletive remedies, are likely to be mostly indicated, 

 while, in a lesser number of cases, remedies having an 

 opposite effect, viz. astringent, etc., may, in like manner, 

 have to be used, as when excretion is exaggerated. Of 

 course, when advanced pathological states of excretion 

 have been attained, when chemical, bacterial, or other 

 morbid changes have ensued in the excretory structures 

 and the matters excreted, then, a wider range of choice 

 of remedies will have to be sought, to meet the super- 

 added pathogenic states and influences. 



Akin to excretion is " casting off," or exuviation, of 

 the skin and its appendages, and denudation of the 

 free surfaces of the body, wherever situated, this pro- 

 cess continually proceeding, and requiring for its main- 

 tenance due attention to its details, as the condition of 

 perfect health is impossible without it ; moreover, certain 

 morbid states owe their origin and continuance to the 

 neglect of nature's requirements in this matter, and 

 propagate themselves on, or in, the unremoved "cast 

 off" textures of the body. 



It follows, from the above, that constant removal of 

 the effete materials, thus continually being freed from 

 all parts of the body, represents a sine qua non of 

 health, and it behoves every person, therefore, to see 

 to it, as a matter of everyday personal routine, as an 

 incentive to which, it may be well to recapitulate that 

 the necessity for it depends on the existence of a physio- 

 logical law, which is always operative, viz. that the body 



