S OF ALCOHOL UPON THE KIDNEYS.

"The kidneys, being the chief organs for the excretion of
nitrogen waste, are among the most important organs of the body.
Any defect in their healthy activity leads to serious
interference with the working of many organs, due to the
accumulation in the body of nitrogenous waste products. If both
kidneys be cut out of an animal, it dies in a few hours from
blood-poisoning, due to the accumulation of waste poisonous
substances which the kidneys should have got rid of. Serious
kidney-disease amounts to pretty much the same thing as cutting
out the organs, since they are of little use if not healthy. It
is always fatal if not checked, and often kills in a short time.
The things which most frequently cause kidney disease are undue
exposure to cold, and indulgence in alcoholic drinks."--Martin's
_Human Body_.

"The kidneys are supplied with arterial blood, which, having
given up water, urea, salt, and certain other substances, either
secreted or simply strained from it, returns to the kidneys
nearly as bright and fresh as when it entered them. While the
lungs are concerned in removing carbonic acid--the ashes of the
furnace--it is the peculiar province of the kidneys to remove
the products of the wear and tear of the bodily machinery--the
wasted nerve and muscle--in the form of urea, or other
crystallizable substances, the presence of which in the economy
for any considerable time is attended with disastrous results.

"Now, nature has put these organs, charged with so important
work, as far away as possible from any source of irritation.
Could alcohol get as direct access to them as to the liver,
there is no doubt that their function would be destroyed almost
at once, since the change in arterial blood by alcohol is much
more extensive and damaging than that wrought in such venous
blood as the liver receives from the portal veins. Thus while
the liver takes the alcohol immediately from the alimentary
canal, the kidneys receive it only after it has passed through
the liver, the heart, the lungs, and the heart again; by which
time much of it has escaped, while the remainder has been
greatly diluted by the blood of the general circulation; yet
coming to the kidneys even so considerably diluted, it has power
to congest, irritate, and excite t