'The 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXXIV. 
No. 398. 
FEBRUARY, 1861 
Fourth Series* 
No. 74. 
Communications and Cases, 
ON THERAPEUTICS. 
• By Professor Brown* M.R.C.V.S.* 
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester* 
(Con tin nedfrom p . 12.) 
DIURETICS. 
Agents that excite the secretive action of the kidnevs are 
m/ 
termed “ diuretics 5 ” but, it would seem, not quite correctly, 
as the drugs presumed to possess the diuretic property only 
occasion an increase in the amount of water. The quantity 
of urea, being dependent upon the waste of the azotized 
tissues, is increased by exertion, but no medicine seems to 
possess the pow r er of causing an excess of this constituents 
So far a 9 the water is concerned, nothing is so easy as to 
excite increased secretion, irrespective of medicinal influence ; 
the sudden action of cold upon the skin, or mere mental 
excitement, will immediately produce it, as also will certain 
articles of diet, as carrots, turnips, and oats that have been 
kiln-dried. Among medicines, the various balsams, turpen¬ 
tine, soaps, nitrate of potash, and, in a minor degree, many 
saline agents, possess a diuretic action. 
The office of the kidneys is to remove the products of the 
decomposition of the azotized textures from the body, and a 
large quantity of water. In certain cases, where other 
secretory organs are at fault, they are capable of discharging 
some of the constituents of other secretions* thus some of 
xxxiv. 6 
