DISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS. 



Relative prevalence in man and animals. Causes of difference. Kidneys as 

 eliminating organs for nitrogenous material, toxins, bacteria, mineral, veg- 

 etable and animal poisons, diuretic drinking water, condition powders, 

 cantharides, urea, etc. Suppression of urine, precipitation of urine. Fil- 

 tration through kidney. Secretion. Urinary solids. Nervous control of 

 secretion. Excess. 



Diseases of the urinary organs are less prevalent in the lower 

 animals than in man, owing largely no doubt to the greater sim- 

 plicity of their habits of life and- to the comparative shortness of 

 the lives of those that are kept for meat producing. It is a mis- 

 take, however, to suppose that they are so infrequent as would 

 appear, since the absence of subjective symptoms in the animal 

 allows a number of the milder forms of renal disease to be passed 

 over without recognition. 



In man the excessive consumption of animal food, the lack of 

 exercise, the abuse of alcohol, the prevalence of veneral diseases, 

 conduce largely to renal troubles, while animals in general escspe. 

 Yet animals suffer much more extensively than is generally sup- 

 posed. The kidneys are, as in man, the eliminating organs for 

 superfluous and waste nitrogenous matter, and in overfed animals 

 may be overcharged with this work. They are the general 

 emunctories for the soluble poisonous products of bacteria and 

 plants, which may stimulate the urinary secretion, and from these 

 irritation may result. It is through the kidneys that the bacteria 

 themselves largely leave the animal body, and trouble is liable to 

 come during their passage. Further, exposure to cold tends to in- 

 crease the urinary secretion, over-stimulating the kidneys, and 

 the same may come from diuretic drinking waters and condition 

 powders, also from cantharides and other diuretic agents applied 

 to the skin. Urea and many toxins are diuretic, hence the oc- 

 currence of polyuria at and after the crisis of fevers. 

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