On the relation between anasarca and the renal affection, at the commencement of the so-called acute renal dropsy : and on the sequence of structural changes which take place in the kidneys : (a thesis for a medical act in the University of Oxford) / by James Andrew.

  • Andrew, James, 1829-1897.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the relation between anasarca and the renal affection, at the commencement of the so-called acute renal dropsy : and on the sequence of structural changes which take place in the kidneys : (a thesis for a medical act in the University of Oxford) / by James Andrew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    •which lead to increased production, under ordinary conditions, of the solid constituents of the urine; for the excretion of such matters being already insufficient, this would merely add to the impurity of the blood. But, as is shown by numerous reported cases, the best results are often obtained by a sea voyage; and yet, if the experiments of Beneke as to the effect of a residence by the sea-side have any value, it would seem probable, in the absence of more direct observations, that during a sea voyage the quantity of urea and of some of the salts of the urine would be greatly increased. Again, the remedies which appear to be most useful are rather those which belong to the class of so-called hasmatinics than those which can be supposed to exert any direct action on the kidneys. But the adequate discussion of these questions would carry me far beyond the scope of this essay. I have endeavoured to describe the sequence of the structural changes in acute renal dropsy, and to establish the probability, at least, that the relation in which the anasarca and renal affection stand to each other, at the commencement, is that of co-ordinate effects to a common cause. In conclusion, I would attempt a brief answer to a common objection against the view here taken of the cause of the disease. It is said that to talk of blood-disorder, dyscrasise, defective secondary assimilation, &c., is too vague to lead to any practical result, that to do so is but to conceal our ignorance behind long words; to impede rather than advance the progress of true knowledge. But, surely it is as unwise to deny our knowledge as to dissemble our ignorance; we need not say that we can know nothing because we do not know all. The knowledge of one single property of any substance is as conclusive proof of the existence of that substance as the knowledge of them all. No one would deny the existence of the several poisons producing ague, syphilis, typhus fever, variola, and many other diseases; and yet, as in the case of acute renal dropsy, our knowledge of their nature is all but limited to what we may gather from one single physiological reaction. To deny their existence on that ground, would scarcely conduce either to the successful study, or treat- ment, of the disorders to which they give rise.
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