94 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY 



serious results, a sudden checking of these functions 

 reacting upon the internal organs of the body and 

 producing congestion which is the first stage of 

 inflammation, thus giving rise to cold and lung 

 troubles at large. Again, any material interference 

 with the free excretion of perspiration may have a 

 fatal result. In a Papal procession at Rome, the 

 body of a child was covered over with gold leaf to 

 represent a figure in the pageant of the Golden Age. 

 The child died in a few hours from a veritable 

 process of suffocation due to the retention within 

 the body of the waste products naturally secreted 

 by the skin. The proper use of baths, and the main- 

 tenance of the skin in a state of high cleanliness is 

 therefore one of the duties we owe to ourselves when 

 the care of our health falls to be considered. 



THE KIDNEYS. The interdependence of the lungs, 

 skin and kidneys may be demonstrated in yet another 

 fashion apart from that which teaches that the three 

 organs perform very much the same kind of work. 

 Where the lungs are affected, part of the rational 

 medical treatment of lung troubles is to increase the 

 action of the skin by administering medicines which 

 cause profuse perspiration; and the same is true 

 when the kidneys are affected. One organ is thus 

 capable to a certain extent of relieving the others in 

 their work. The kidneys are two in number, one on 

 each side of the lumbar or loins region of the body. 

 The term "kidney-shaped" is a familiar enough 

 expression, and serves to indicate the form of the 

 kidney which is convex to the outer side and deeply 

 indented on the inner side. A very large artery, the 

 renal artery, given off from the aorta, enters each 

 kidney, and a very large vein, the renal vein, joining 

 the vena cava, leaves it (Fig 28). The blood leaving 



