THE SKIN AND THE KIDNEYS 209 



283. Effects of Alcohol upon the Kidneys. The kidneys 

 differ from some other organs which can rest awhile 

 without any harm to the body. For instance, we can 

 keep the eyes closed for a few days, if necessary, without 

 injury, and in fact often with benefit ; or, we can abstain 

 from food for some days, if need be, and let the stomach 

 rest. But the kidneys cannot, with safety, cease their 

 work even for one hour. Their duty in ridding the blood 

 of waste products and of any foreign or poisonous mate- 

 rial introduced, must be done continually, or the general 

 health of the whole body is disturbed. 



Thus it is, as we may well suppose, that these two impor- 

 tant organs, with their large blood vessels conveying enor- 

 mous amounts of blood to and from their tissues, feel very 

 quickly the presence of alcohol. Alcoholic liquors tend 

 to irritate the delicate kidney tissues and thus speedily 

 disturb their work of excreting the waste materials from 

 the blood. 



The continued congestion of the kidneys may result in 

 a series of disturbances from the imperfect elimination 

 of waste matter. The urea, which is a poison and which 

 must be removed, may be retained in the system, while 

 the albumin, which is essential to healthy blood, may be 

 filtered away through the overtaxed kidneys.- 



The long-continued use of alcohol may produce such a 

 change in the structure of the kidneys that fat cells become 

 infiltrated into the tissues, causing in them what is known 

 as fatty degeneration. 



