by patient and accurate
experiments by Bouchard and others, the amount of toxic, or
poisonous, material naturally separated from the blood by the
kidneys and passed out in the urine is so great that if wholly
retained by failure of the kidneys to act for two or three days,
speedy death ensues. Equally familiar to every observing
physician is the fact that in all the acute febrile and
inflammatory diseases, not only is the quantity of the urine
secreted generally diminished, but its quality or constituency
is also changed to a greater degree than even its quantity.
Thus, some of the more important constituents are increased,
others diminished, and often new or foreign elements are found
present, all resulting from the disordered metabolic processes
taking place throughout the system during the progress of these
diseases.

"It is, therefore, hardly necessary to remind the physician that
it is of the greatest importance to know as correctly as
possible both the direct and the indirect influence of every
medicine or drink on the action of the kidneys and all other
eliminating organs and structures, lest he unwittingly allow the
use of such as may not only retard the elimination of the
specific causes of disease, but also favor auto-intoxication by
retarding the elimination of the natural elements of excretion.

"That the presence of alcohol in the living system positively
lessens the reception and internal distribution of oxygen, and
consequently retards the oxidation processes of disassimilation
by which the various products for excretion are perfected and
their elimination facilitated, is so fully demonstrated, both by
observation and experiment, as no longer to admit of doubt.

"As nearly all the toxic elements of urine are the results of
these oxidation processes, the presence of alcohol in the system
could hardly fail to interfere with them in a notable degree.

"The direct and somewhat extensive series of experiments
instituted by Glazer, as published in the _Deut. Med.
Wochensch._, Leipsic, Oct. 22, 1891, demonstrated this, as shown
by the following conclusions:--'Alcohol, in even relatively
moderate quantities, irritates the kidneys, so that the
exudation of leucocytes and the formation of cylindrical casts
may occur. It also produces an unusual amount of uric