ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON THE KIDNEYS. 189 



7. Alcohol Causes Kidney-Disease in Several Ways. In 

 the first place it overstimulates the organs. Next, when 

 its abuse is continued, it interferes with the proper prep- 

 aration of the nitrogen wastes: they are then brought 

 to the kidneys in an unfit state for removal, and injure 

 those organs. Third, when more than a small quantity of 

 alcohol is taken, some of it is passed out of the body un- 

 changed, through the kidneys, and injures their substance. 



The kidney-disease most commonly produced by alco- 

 hol, is one kind of "Bright's disease," so called from 

 the physician who first described it. The connective 

 tissue of the organ grows in excess, and the true excreting 

 kidney-substance dwindles away. At last the organ be- 

 comes quite unable to do its work, and death results. 



7. State one effect of alcohol on the kidneys. Another? A third? 

 What kidney-disease is commonly produced by alcoholic excess ? How 

 are the kidneys altered by it? Results? 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XVII. 



To demonstrate the anatomy of the renal organs proceed as follows: 



1. Kill a rat, puppy, or kitten in any merciful way; placing it under 

 a bell-jar with a sponge soaked in ether is a good method. 



2. Open the abdomen of the animal, remove its alimentary canal, 

 and cut away (with stout scissors) the front of the pelvic girdle. 

 The dark red kidneys will then be easily recognized on each side of 

 the dorsal part of the abdominal cavity, the right one nearer the head 

 than the left. 



3. Dissect away neatly the connective tissue, etc., in front of the 

 vertebral column, so as to clean the inferior vena cava and the abdomi- 

 nal aorta. Trace out the renal arteries and veins. 



4. Find the ureter, a slender tube passing back from the kidney 

 towards the pelvis: it leaves the inner border of the kidney behind 

 the vein and artery; and lying, at first, at some distance from the 

 middle line, converges towards its fellow as it passes back. 



5. Follow the ureters back until they reach the urinary bladder; 

 dissect away the tissues around the latter and note its form, etc. 



6. Open the bladder; find the apertures of entry of the ureters, 

 and pass bristles through them into those tubes. Note the mucous 

 membrane lining the bladder. 



