stem, being
surrounded by a wall with towers at regular intervals. Many of the
inhabitants are the well-known Banyan merchants of the east coast of
Africa and Arabia. Native spirits are distilled from the palm, salt is
made and fish caught. The trade of the town, however, is decayed. There
are remains of several fine ancient buildings. The cathedral or Se
Matriz, dating from 1601, was formerly a Jesuit college. The mint, the
arsenal and several convents (now ruined or converted to other uses) are
also noteworthy. The Portuguese, under treaty with Bahadur Shah of
Gujarat, built a fort here in 1535, but soon quarrelled with the natives
and were besieged in 1538 and 1545. The second siege is one of the most
famous in Indo-Portuguese history, and is the subject of an epic by
Jeronymo Corte Real (q.v.).

See R. S. Whiteway, _Rise of the Portuguese Power in India_ (1898).

DIURETICS (from Gr. [Greek: dia], through, and [Greek: ourein], pass
urine), the name given to remedies which, under certain conditions,
stimulate an increased flow of urine. Their mode of action is various.
Some are absorbed into the blood, carried to the secretory organs (the
kidneys), and stimulate them directly, causing an increased flow of
blood; others act as stimulants through the nervous system. A second
class act in congested conditions of the kidneys by diminishing the
congestion. Another class, such as the saline diuretics, are effectual
by virtue of their osmotic action. A fourth class are diuretic by
increasing the blood pressure within the vessels in general, and the
Malpighian tufts in particular,--some, as digitalis, by increasing the
strength of the heart's contractions, and others, as water, by
increasing the amount of fluid circulating in the vessels. Some
remedies, as mercury, although not diuretic themselves, when prescribed
along with those which have this action, increase their effect. The same
remedy may act in more than one way, e.g. alcohol, besides stimulating
the secretory organs directly, is a stimulant to the circulation, and
thus increases the pressure within the vessels. Diuretics are prescribed
when the quantity of urine is much diminished, or when, although the
quantity may be normal, it is wished to relieve some other organ or set
of organs of part of their ordinary work, or to aid in carrying off some
morbid product circulating in the blood, or to hasten the removal of
inflammatory serous exudations, or of dropsi