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The Relation of the Kidneys to Metabolism. — Preliminary 



Communication. 

 By F. A. Bainbridge, M.A., M.D., and A. P. Beddard, M.A., M.D. 



(Communicated by Professor E. H. Starling, F.E.S. Eeceived November 20, — 



Read November 22, 1906.) 



(From the Gordon Laboratory and Physiological Laboratory, Guy's Hospital.) 



The effects following on the removal of large portions of the kidneys of 

 dogs were studied by Eose Bradford in 1892. In the first place, he found 

 that animals deprived of three-quarters or more of their total kidney weight 

 rapidly wasted, and died in two or three weeks, or even less ; and, although 

 they often refused food, they passed daily an amount of urea almost or quite 

 equal to that passed by the same animals on full diet before operation. 

 Secondly, he observed that after the removal of a portion of one kidney, the urine 

 became more abundant and more dilute, and the dogs were apparently unable 

 to excrete a concentrated urine ; this effect was intensified by the subsequent 

 removal of the opposite kidney. Bradford concluded that the kidneys in 

 some manner normally control the nitrogenous metabolism, and that in the 

 absence of sufficient kidney substance this metabolism becomes excessive. 



In view of their extreme importance, a repetition of these experiments 

 appeared advisable ; it was hoped, too, that more complete analysis of the 

 urine might throw some light on the course of nitrogenous metabolism as 

 a whole. This paper contains a preliminary account of our observations. 



Methods. 



Cats were used for these experiments. They were ancesthetised with 

 chloroform and ether, the anaesthesia being maintained by ether throughout 

 the operation. 



The abdomen was opened in the middle line, and the kidney drawn up into 

 the wound ; the capsule was opened, and stripped off the kidney. The renal 

 vessels were digitally compressed, a wedge cut out of the kidney, and the 

 cut surfaces brought into apposition and kept together by two or three 

 sutures passing deeply through the kidney substance. The kidney was then 

 replaced in its capsule and the latter was closed by a continuous suture ; the 

 kidney was returned to its place and the abdominal wound closed. No 

 vessels were ligatured, since forceps are so apt to damage the kidney 

 substance : a little blood collects between the kidney and capsule, where it 

 clots and checks further loss of blood. 



