268 
THE VETERINARY ART IN INDIA. 
the observations of so many able and curious anatomists. By 
what power, then, is it possible that urine can receive the odour 
and even colouring matter of these ingredients, if some such ope- 
ration as above described does not take place ? Parts, we know, 
may communicate, or be affected from sympathy ; but no one 
will assert that sympathy or nervous communication can give 
odour or colour. Therefore, as these effects are well known to 
exist, I must strengthen my theory, by taking advantage of the 
impossibility of their having any other mode of acting ; which 
operation is the more probable, when it is considered that most 
diuretics which act so soon are more or less of a diffusible, vola- 
tile, pervading, and penetrating quality. 
There is an intimate action or sympathy existing between the 
kidneys and pores of the skin, and these hold a more remote one 
with the lungs. The first, we before observed, from the increased 
secretion of the kidneys in cold weather, when the skin is dry, 
the urine being then copious and pale ; whereas, in hot weather, 
the skin is moist, and the urine small in quantity, and high 
coloured. This is perhaps the healthy change, which accom- 
modates itself to the varieties in the temperature. Diseases may 
sometimes be detected by this standard, and every deviation from 
this rule is the effect of disorder in the system, or heat and cold 
imprudently applied. The perspiration is sometimes checked ; it is 
thrown on the lungs, and thus produces oppression, cough, fever, 
&c., whereas, had it passed by the kidneys, the system would 
not have suffered. 
I, however, believe that the benefit derived from diuretics 
arises from more general properties than the word diuretic im- 
plies, as their most extensive benefit certainly does not arise 
from conveying the redundance from the blood, but from the 
general stimulus which they impart to the whole system ; as in 
cases of debility, puffed legs from want of energy in the circu- 
lation, and particularly in cases of exhaustion ; and, next, by in- 
creasing the attraction of the blood to the kidneys, for the purpose 
of diverting it from inflamed parts, as in inflammation of the 
lungs, 8cc. 
