ON THE ACTION OF DIURETICS. 
641 
separated from the blood by the kidneys in any given time. On 
the contrary, every thing which retards the circulation, such as 
aqueous or acidulated drinks, repose, lowness of temperature, 
warm baths, refrigerants, &c., augment the urinary secretion. 
According to this author, it is therefore erroneous to suppose 
that diuresis is ever the result of irritation of the kidneys; for, 
says he, “ so long as the pulse continues frequent and strong, and 
the blood circulates forcibly through the kidneys, the quantity of 
urine is diminished; while, on the contrary, when the pulse is 
slow and weak, and the blood circulates through the kidneys 
slowly, the urine becomes abundant*.” 
So that the inference to be drawn from these citations is, that 
all sedative medicines determine diuresis, and that this is ever the 
result of the narcotic effect of the sedation produced primarily in 
the organism. Such is, in a degree, the positive or experimental 
side of the question : let us now attempt the explanation of the 
facts. 
To the Rasiriens (disciples of Rasire) the question is simple 
enough. The kidneys are nothing more than filters, and therefore 
their operation becomes so much the more perfect in proportion 
as the blood conveying the materials of the urine circulates with 
slowness through them. Now let us see if this explanation be 
well founded, and especially if it be of a nature satisfactory to 
genuine physiologists. 
M. Trousseau explains the development of diuresis under the 
influence of sedation, through whatever agent, by a kind of 
functional reciprocation (solidarite) subsisting between the skin and 
the kidneys. The skin becoming inactive, secreting or exhaling 
but very scantily, during the sedation of the central organism, the 
kidneys are of necessity urged to redoubled activity in order to 
supply, in their capacity as emunctories, the surface of the body, 
which no longer receives but an insufficiency of blood and nervous 
energy for the exercise of its regular functions. Such is M. Rous- 
seau’s physiological explanation, and feasible enough it appears. 
Let us see if any others can be found. 
] st. The skin is charged with three orders of functions : — The 
first, altogether mechanical, is to serve as a protective covering to 
the body; the second comprises the different secretions and ex- 
halations issuing from it ; and the third, its special tactile sen- 
sibility, which constitutes it an organ of sense, a sort of dependent 
of the cerebro-spinal nervous system. 
As an organ charged with depuratory secretion and exhalation, 
the skin is in a state of complete reciprocity ( solidarity ) with the 
* Traite Philosophique et Experimental de Matiere Mddicale et de Thera- 
peutique, par G. A. Giacomi, p. Ill et 116 . 
