1,5 1 KIDNEYS, THE RIGHT AND LEFT, VARY. [BOOK I. 



to extend itself backwards for that purpose. Mu- 

 tual excitement, no doubt, is the intent of this con- 

 nexion ; and that apparent deviation from her true 

 system, which nature allows in the effusion from one 

 part to another, takes place, when either the one or 

 the other may be diseased, obstructed, injured, or 

 destroyed. On no other grounds can we account 

 how it is that brute animals so long survive the total 

 destruction of some vital part, as we frequently find. 

 One consequence of this loose situation of the right 

 kidney is, that inflammation generally makes its ap- 

 pearance upon it earlier than on the left, a circum- 

 stance which is partly derived from its proximity to 

 the liver ; it also imparts some of its own feeling to 

 that organ, when inflamed ; two facts these which 

 ought to be well kept in mind, when we wish to 

 excite unusual secretion in either. In shape, the 

 left kidney approaches the angular more than the 

 right one ; from which we infer that, although the 

 functions of the two must be so nearly the same, 

 in affections they differ ; at least, we know that a 

 gall or slight blow will affect the left much sooner 

 than the right kidney. 



54. The section of a kidney, — which should be 

 performed lengthwise, — will show in the centre its 

 pelvis, in which the tube (or ureter) that carries off 

 the water to the bladder takes its rise : in this pelvis 

 stone is sometimes formed, that often finds its way 

 to the bladder, unless it remain in the ureter, or 

 comes away entirely *. The ureters communicate 



* We were called in to examine a horse suffering under the latter 



