139 
ON THERAPEUTICS. 
interference with the function of the one often causing a cor¬ 
responding alteration in that of the other. Each organ may, 
and doubtless has, its specific use in the animal frame, yet 
we know that some organs act vicariously: thus, the skin 
equalises the circulation by carrying off' the superfluous fluid 
from the system, and so do the kidneys; each, in like manner, 
serves as a channel for the excretion of certain effete materials; 
nevertheless, the one cannot lie said to wholly compensate 
for the other, the kidneys not being accepted as a means of 
regulating the temperature of the body nor serving as the 
seat of touch, these peculiarities belonging to the skin. 
We think we have advanced enough to show the importance 
of a study of the urine, with its occasional constituents and 
its deposits, and likewise the relation which these bear to the 
alterations that are taking place in the frame, and it will afford 
us much gratification if the inquiry should be again taken up 
by those who are more able to do it justice than we are. We 
have entered into but few particulars, contenting ourselves 
with a general view of the subject, from knowing that it is 
one which has been recently brought prominently before the 
scientific section of the community. It would be strange if 
subsequent investigations should demonstrate, as Briicke 
appears to have done in reference to the urine of the human 
subject, that sugar is likewise a normal constituent of this 
secretion in the horse, and diabetes only “an exaggeration of 
a healthy state, and not a distinct and peculiar condition of 
the svstem.” Yet stranger things than this have come to 
pass in the medical world, through the progress of science; 
the development of its truths having always been slow. 
ON THERAPEUTICS. 
By Professor Brown, M.R.C.V.S,, 
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. 
(Continued from p. 7 1.) 
i 
TONICS. 
The common expression, “ tonicitybears an extended 
application. It refers to that peculiar property of muscular 
fibre which enables it to continue a steady contraction with¬ 
out exhaustion; and, in another sense, to that condition of 
