The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-06-20
Our O9liu.
What is the Cause P

From. the Baltimore, Nd. EUening Ne,os
That there has been a large increase of
kidney diseases among the people of late
years there is no mistake. Indeed kidney
troubles have become so frequent, common
and notorious that laymen are accustomed
to suspect that the doctors group everything
they fail to cure or cannot account for or
explain under the head of kidney disorders.
They suspect that the kidneys have become
the fashion and are made to cover multitude
of ailments. Many ask why it is that these
small and hitherto despised organs of the
human body have suddenly sprung into
such conspicuous Importance. They were
hardly thought of few years ago. The
lungs were very highly respected; the brain
occupied lofty place in general esteem;
the heart was quite familiar organ, and
the liver was made to shoulder all the
blame for everything which could not be
directly traced to one or the other respec-
table and responsible organ. And it was
the general recognition of this which pro-
duced the invention of so many liver rem
edies. Every quack and every empiric lit
orally event for" the liver. They bonn
barded it with pills and drenched it with
elixers. We had every kind of cordial,
syrup, regulator, and pad for it, to cure it
if it was diseased, or prevent it from being
affected if it was well. twas even report
ed that eminent surgeons had taken out
several peculiarly valuable livers, scraped
them and put them safely back again
But of late years the liver has quite
made its peace with the public and is now
largely regarded as much-abused and i'm
posed-upon organ. We have become rec
onciled to our liver and are disposed to
treat it with respect, if not with apprecia-
tive affection, because the kidneys have
taken its place as the scapegoat of all our
pains and aches. They have loomed up as
corporeal nuisances, which seem to have
been put into us like worms in goodly fruit.
We hear so much of them as destroyers of
human health and happiness that we begin
to feel mortal resentment towards them.
Everywhere it is kidney complaints, until
we pity every human body that passes us
with kidney in it. In fact they seem to
have only been intended as seeds or store
houses of disease
That people died of kidney diseases be-
fore that organ became such an important
and fashionable factor in human complaints
is doubtless fact Before Dr. Bright's
discoveries, doubtless there were unrecog.
nized kidney troubles and many of them
fatal But there is no doubt that within
the last quarter of century there has been
frightful increase in kidney complaints,
an increase calculated to attract attention
to the organ, even if it had escaped notice
before There is no doubt that there is
some cause in modern life for the multipli-
cation of such disorders What is it?
This is question which it becomes obser-
want people, and especially the scientists,
to examine Is there anything in the
changed condition of life that will account
fort it? Have our food supplies anything
to do with it or the modern conveniences
introduced into our dwellings, Do we
bathe imprudently or IS our atmosphere
impregnated with poison it did not once
contain to the same extent?
Or is it the free use of ice and ice water?
OF late years the consumption of ice has
become almost universal, certainly much
more general than it once was. We were
content a quarter of century ago to drink
water fresh from the spring, pump or well,
at its normal temperature, and even in the
country where private persons had their
ice-houses, the latter were only used to
keep milk, butter, meats, fruit, &C., fresh
and the potable water from the spring was
seldom chilled with ice, And in those
days kidney diseases were almost unknown;
they had not certainly attracted much at
tention and there were few cases like the
many now classed as kidney complaints.
Can it be that the modern habit, albeit
dangerous one otherwise, of chilling the
internal organs suddenly with large draughts
of ice.eald water, and that too in the very
hottest part of the year and at moments
when the system is most thoroughly heat
ed is the cause of these disorders9 The
suggestion is certainly one worth considera-
ton and investigation. The men who
drank at the old oaken bucket never sas-
pected that they had Kidneys, But the
day Of the hydrant aud the cooler and the
| refrigerator has been eotemporaneous with
mysterious disorders, classed under the
general head of Bright's disease, and we
have seen men and women whittier and
dwindle and grow white or sallow and die,
some suddenly and others slnwly, with the
inevitable assurance that their malady was
Bright's disease.
1t is a noticeable and notorious fact that
kidney troubles are not so prevalent among
the poor, who cannot afford the luxury of
ice water or frozen delicacies. Among
those who live most comfortably kidney
troubles prevail, and some imagine that
they are the product of high living, of good
feeding. But such people are in the habit
of chilling their internal organs with large
and frequent draughts of ice water and the
eating, for desert or "to cool off, of ice
cream, water ices. &c,
May not this modern free and reckless
use Of ice prove to be the principal, if not
the sole cause of this fearful visitationf
May not the human ships that so frequent
ly and mysteriously sink be wrecked by
collision with unnoticed icebergs? There
is some cause, some imprudence OF abuse
associated with modern life, to which these
peculiar disorders must be attributed, and
is not this the most plausible and suggestive
one?