the other organs in this: those can rest a while without any
harm to themselves, or to the body. We can keep the eyes closed for a few
days, if necessary, without injury, and in fact often with benefit; or, we
can abstain from food for some days, if need be, and let the stomach rest.
But the kidneys cannot, with safety, cease their work. Their duty in
ridding the blood of waste products, and of any foreign or poisonous
material introduced, must be done not only faithfully, but continually, or
the whole body at once suffers from the evil effects of the retained waste
matters.

This vital fact is the key to the injurious results developed in the
kidneys by the use of alcoholic drinks. These two organs have large
blood-vessels conveying full amounts of blood to and from their
structures, and they feel very quickly the presence of alcohol. Alcoholic
liquors excite and irritate the delicate renal membranes, and speedily
disturb and eventually destroy their capacity to excrete the proper
materials from the blood.

The continued congestion of the minute structure of the kidney cuts off
the needed nutrition of the organ, and forms the primary step in the
series of disasters. Sometimes from this continued irritation, with the
resulting inflammation, and sometimes from change of structure of the
kidney by fatty degeneration, comes the failure to perform its proper
function. Then, with this two-edged sword of disaster, the urea, which
becomes a poisonous element, and should be removed, is retained in the
system, while the albumen, which is essential to healthy blood, is
filtered away through the diseased kidney.

259. Alcoholic Liquors as a Cause of Bright's Disease. The
unfortunate presence of albumen in the urine is often a symptom of that
insidious and fatal malady known as _albuminuria_ or Bright's disease,
often accompanied with dropsy and convulsions. One of the most constant
causes of this disease is the use of intoxicants. It is not at all
necessary to this fatal result that a person be a heavy drinker. Steady,
moderate drinking will often accomplish the work. Kidney diseases produced
by alcoholic drinks, are less responsive to medical treatment and more
fatal than those arising from any other known cause.[39]

Experiment 129. Obtain a sheep's kidney in good order. Observe that
its shape is something like that of a bean, and note that the concave
part (hilus), when in its normal position, is turned towards the