94 
JOHN R. HART. 
AZOTURIA. 
By John R. Hart, V.M.D., Philadelphia, Pa. 
A SYNOPSIS OF A PAPER READ IN 1883, WITH SUCH MODIFICA¬ 
TIONS AS CIRCUMSTANCES AND THE LAPSE OF TIME 
WOULD SEEM TO WARRANT. 
( Concluded from page g2.) 
Nerves. —As to the nerves. Complex causes which are 
capable of introducing alterations fall often upon the nerve ele¬ 
ments and through them as an intermediary provoke reflex dis¬ 
turbances. Some manifest themselves in the diseased part or 
organ where the irritation of blood absorption and nutrition 
causes work to be done in an abnormal manner. Others reflect 
upon the whole economy ; the heart and respiratory action is 
accelerated and the elaboration of material is found altered in 
all the cells of the body. Urea and carbonic acid are produced 
in much greater quantity. Nerve reaction has not only added 
certain peculiar features to local manifestations ; it has bound 
the whole organism to the work which is going on in the dis¬ 
eased part. Besides, nerve reaction nearly always borrows the 
co-operation of another. Pathogenic process, every nerve exci¬ 
tation, cold, shock, emotional or traumatic, may produce altera¬ 
tions of some kind. These are not diseases. The real disease 
when it is roused by nerve reaction infers, except in cases where 
the stimulation is excessive, and those wherein the nervous sys¬ 
tem is abnormally excited, an essential deterioration of the 
organism. A disturbed nervous system induces disturbance of 
nutrition, perverted nutrition leads to the development of new 
substances, which may become toxic. There are often formed 
in the organism peptones which do not originate in the intestinal 
tube, but which are injurious in this sense, that escape by the 
urine, and thus bring about an abnormal spoliation of the or¬ 
ganisms. There are thus produced abnormal albumens, which 
escape by the kidneys, and seem capable of destroying the 
nutrition of the renal epithelium and of introducing certain 
nephritis. 
