On the inflammatory diseases of the kidney / by George Johnson.

  • Johnson, George, 1818-1896.
Date:
[1847]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the inflammatory diseases of the kidney / by George Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    originate in the organ itself, but rather that they are the local manifestations of a more general constitutioiial disorder. The pathological changes which the kidnej^ undergoes are such as it is liable to in the performance of its physiological duty, that, namely, of separating from the blood materials, the retention of which would interfere with the normal and healthy condition of that fluid. In the treatment of these diseases two indications must be kept constantly in view. These are, first,—To prevent the further formation or development of those products, the ex- cretion of which by the kidney is productive of serious struc- tural changes; and second,—To relieve the kiduey as much as may be of its excretory duty, by exciting to action other eliminating organs—as, for instance, the skin and bowels. With reference to the mutual connection between the skin and the kidneys, the following general principles appear worthy of attention :—First, When the kidneys are sufiFering in consequence of having to excrete abnormal products, we may often with safety and advantage relieve these organs by exciting the skin to an increased amount of excretory work. On the contrary, when, in consequence of an abnormal con- dition of the blood, the skin is the seat of disease, the greatest care and caution are required in the administration of cantharides and other diuretic medicines ; the danger being, that the materies morbi may by these means be deter- mined to the kidneys, and that the cure of a trifling cuta- neous disease may be accomplished at the risk of exciting a serious and destructive renal disease. Second,—When cerebral disease supervenes upon the sup- pression of a cutaneous eruption, it is probable that this occurs through the intervention of renal disease, and not as a con- sequence of the direct transfer of disease from the skin to the brain or its membranes. It has been too much the custom to administer medicines for the purpose of stimulating the kidneys, in all cases in which these organs are supposed to be in a state of functional inactivity. There are certain materials derived both from