THE KIDNEY 53 



morbides du sang rempla9ant la secretion interne normale." 

 This view was partly based upon clinical observations in which 

 in spite of long-continued anuria the symptoms of uraemia were 

 practically absent. Later, in 1892, Brown-Sequard and d'Ar- 

 sonval stated that " le rein a une secretion interne d'une grande 

 utilite. ' ' They removed both kidneys from rabbits and guinea- 

 pigs, and found that death occurred much earlier than after 

 ligature of both ureters, although, of course, in both cases 

 there was an accumulation of urinary substances in the blood. 

 Then they administered to some of these by subcutaneous 

 injection diluted juice of kidney from a normal animal of the 

 same species, while they left others untouched as controls. 

 They found that those animals which had received the injection 

 survived one or two days longer than the controls ; the duration 

 of life in the injected animals was, in fact, equal to or longer 

 than that of animals which had undergone ligature of both 

 ureters. The phenomena of ursemia were of slower develop- 

 ment in those animals which survived the longer, owing to 

 treatment with kidney extract. 



Some observations of Lepine seemed to point to the fact 

 that the kidney blood contains peculiar substances. Working 

 with rabbits, this observer found that tying both ureters induced 

 death after fall of temperature, vomiting, and diarrhoea. But 

 if the flow through the ureter were checked by connecting 

 it with a vessel containing normal saline at a higher pressure 

 than that in the ureter, then the symptoms induced were quite 

 different. Instead of a fall of temperature there was a rise, 

 and in addition one observed increased rate of respiration and 

 convulsions. A watery extract of kidney injected into the 

 circulation produces, according to Lepine, a rise of temperature 

 and dyspnoea. He concludes that the kidney substance con- 

 tains materials inducing these effects, and suggests the possi- 

 bility of auto -intoxications of renal origin. 



E. Meyer, a pupil of Brown-Sequard, found that while the 

 blood of ursemic animals produces no definite effects upon 

 normal animals, when injected into nephrectomized animals, 

 it induces dyspnoea and slowing of respiration. The same 

 observer further found that injections of kidney extract, or 

 normal blood, or of renal venous blood from a normal animal, 

 have the immediate effect of checking the Cheyne -Stokes 

 respiration which is such a striking symptom of ursemia. 



