1892.] The Influence of the Kidney on Metabolism. 



25 



pointing to the probability that there are certain nerve fibres which do 

 not depend on the ganglion for their trophic supply, but derive the 

 same from elsewhere, either the spinal cord at another level, or the 

 periphery. 



In conclusion, the author calls special attention to the value of the 

 method of excluding one or more nerve roots during an epileptic 

 spasm, as affording a means of confirming the facts that have been 

 previously observed from stimulation of the nerve roots, and also of 

 ascertaining new facts with regard to them and the plexuses which 

 they form. He further goes on to point out that it supplies a valuable 

 means of studying the manner in which conduction of impulses from 

 the cortex through the nerve roots and plexuses to the muscles takes 

 place ; and that it is capable of still wider extension, as if, instead of 

 producing general epilepsy, less powerful stimuli be applied to the 

 centres for different movements, as represented in the motor cortex, 

 it will afford a means of connecting such centres, or parts of these, 

 with the nerve roots to which fibres proceed from these cortical motor 

 centres. 



III. " The Influence of the Kidney on Metabolism." By J. 

 Rose Bradford, M.D., D.Sc, Fellow of University College, 

 London, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Uni- 

 versity College, Grocer Research Scholar. Communicated 

 by Professor Schafer, F.R.S. Received February 18, 

 1892. 



(From the Physiological Laboratory of University College, London.) 



The results described in this preliminary communication were ob- 

 tained in a series of experiments commenced in June, 1889, and at 

 present still in progress, with the object of elucidating the functions 

 of the kidneys, and to gain an insight into the disturbance produced 

 in the economy by disease of these organs. 



Method. — All the experiments were made on dogs, and a complete 

 experiment involves the following stages : — 



Firstly. — The animal, after being weighed, is placed in a suitable 

 chamber, and fed on a weighed diet containing a known quantity of 

 nitrogen; the water drunk is also measured. The amount of urine 

 passed is measured, and the quantity of urea and total nitrogen in it 

 determined. Finally, the weight of the faeces and the amount of 

 nitrogen in them are also determined. All the nitrogen determina- 

 tions were made by means of Kjeldahl's method ; the urea was esti- 

 mated by the hypobromite method. A daily determination of the 

 above factors was made for a period of a week, and a daily average 



