The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-01-02
NO. 40.
DISEASE.

the harness, who died from Bright 5 dis
ease. Another is stricken down with pa
ralysis or apoplexy. and upon further ex-
animation, or while he still fingers in life,
it is found that he has been suffering from
kidney troubles, and so on. Why then is
this thus? Is Bright's disease something
terrible, is it unavoidable, cannot it be
cured, what causes it and how can it be
avoided? All these questions will natu-
rally arise upon the lips of those who value
life, while other questions will naturally
arise in the minds of those who do really
value health and living in health instead
of keeping ON in life under suffering.
Bright's disease is so called because a
man who loved to learn and investigate
first described it, whose name was Richard
Bright, a doctor in London, England, who
described both the acute and chronic forms
of it about 1885, or 1888, and later than that
some of the ablest medical men in the Uni
ted States have taken a great deal of in
terest in ibis disease in its different forms,
as well as how to keep clear of it.
In medical parlance it is called albu-
menuria, from the fact that albumen,
which should never be there. is there. and
urea, which should be there, as not there;
in other words, the normal constituent is
not present, and one which should not be
present is. In the investigation of the
causes of this disease, it was not first cor
rectly stated, but very careful and extend
ed observation has since that time made
the facts all reasonably plain, and medical
men now agree that it is a state of conges-
ton and obstructed circulation of the kid
neys, and that this obstruction or conges-
ton arises from two causes: First. albu-
men, an essential alimentary constituent of
the blood, is secreted and passed off in
large or small quantities in the urine; and
secondly, urea, or matter which is worn
seem to have been made expressly to carry
off, is permitted to remain in the blood, in
stead of being carried off as it should be
and would be under normal circumstances.
L HE d blLt stECiitilS S1ditihS VI iIC IifdbtSi
or stating of the case. If we put it into a
little palmer words and without all the
medical terms. it will be something like
this: In the person of the healthy man or
woman there is exceedingly little differ
ence as to the physical work carried on by
the different organs of each; with the
exception of sex there is no difference.
The kidneys are one of the most i'm
portant organs of the whole body, and the
work which they do, or are to do, is as i'm
portant as the work of the heart itself.
Whenever the kidneys are clogged there is
trouble; in a simple case it may be infiam-
nation of the kidneys, which causes heat,
and heat makes fever. Or it may be in
some obscure form which gives trouble to
the physician on account of not knowing
all the faults of the patient.
Now let us take up a person who drinks
a great deal of beer, lager beer, or ale, or,
if you please, any fermented liquor or staf.
In the first place, it requires a somewhat
morbid appetite, and then, whenever the
appetite exists and is gratified, it causes
what? The introduction of alcohol in a
very diluted form; and it also gives into
the stomach a great deal of gas, and the
combination of the two produces a sour
smell, and gives rise to what medical men
call quotations. and what we common peo-
pie know as belching wind. Now alcohol
itself irritates. infiames. or produces ex-
actly what we call fever, or symptoms of
fever: but whenever this is done, the kid
neys have to carry off a great deal more
fluid than they would under ordinary cir
cumstances. If this is carried on for any
great length of time, then the kidneys be-
come flaccid, and they begin to be infiamed
permanently, and they are not capable of
doing their work as they oughttodo. Long
continued inflammation weakens them;
they do not do the work that we believe
God intended them to do, and, as a natural
consequence, disease makes its appearance;
and this disease is a very insidious one;
it is not a plain, easily-diagnosised one, but
it is a treacherous, stealthy one, which
slowly but surely und ermines health,
strength. and does not leave any plain
track, until, all of a sudden, there comes a
collapse, paralysis, apoplexy or death.
But there is another point which is of as
much consequence as the other; obstruc-
ton causes an action which is not proper,
and which gives a decided change of all
the functions of the various organs brought
into the work. Whenever any portion of
the human body does not do its W work,
some other portion or organ has that work
to do, either directly or indirectly. and
whenever that occurs one is overworked,
and the other is doing damage to every
thing in its track. In this case the kid
neys are over-worked, they do not do a
part of the work; as a natural consequence
what should be taken off with them in the
natural way, goes into some other portion
of the body and makes trouble. We have
said before that urea should he found in
the urine, but in this disease it is not found.
Now the urea is the most abundant and
the most important principle IN the urine.
it is a normal, organic constituent, and il
a great excess or deficiency exists, it indi
Gates something out of order in the system
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