The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-10
BRIGHT'S DISEASE.

| Sometimes the trouble starts i'm the
| kidneys themselves-as, for instance
when they are crippled by alcohol
and sometimes 1t starts in the stomach
or elsewhere. But in any case the
| blame lies with faulty methods of liv-
/ ing, and ii is the kidneys that suffer
! the final damage. And when they falter
or fail in their business the body fills
up with poisons and death is not far
away. Bright's disease, in fact, may
be called anti-poisoning. Its victim dies
| of poisons generated within its own
body.
Late government reports indicate
that the malady kills about $4,000
| Americans every year. In the main,
! they are Americans of the highest
| quality and usefulness-the very men,
| indeed. whose strenuous energy makes
up the national spirit. Most of them
are brain-workers in the full flush of
manhood, and their value to the nation
is beyond estimation. And yet ii is
| this very energy-this very determine
! ton to accomplish something big and
| lasting-which cuts short their lives.
| They have their eyes upon fame or a
million, and so neglect their bodies. A
1 mOlly-coddle seldom dies of Bright
disease. But it kills more millionaires
/ than any other single malady.
No one knows the exact nature of
! the poisons which are the actual cause
of death in Bright's disease. A few
years ago it was the fashion to put
the blame upon uric acid, but among
advanced physicians the uric acid theo-
/ ~, as il is generally understood, is
now little more than a joke. There is
! good reason to believe, indeed, that
the poison which does the damage va
ries greatly in individual cases, and
that some day a great many varieties
! of Bright's disease will be differentiat-
| ed and described. All that is known de-
| finitely is that the poisonous sub
when, upon a normal diet, the amount
of nitrogen eXcreted by the kidneys is
| below normal, there is good reason to
| look for the appearance of the familiar
| late symptoms, such as uraemic coma.
1t would be Improbable, in this
place, to attempt a description of the
| changes which take place i'm the kid
neys during the course of Bright
| disease. Suffice it to say that their
structure changes I'm a manner easily
recognized by the practised eye, and
| that they gradually become less and
/ less able to discharge their normal
| functions. Therefore. even supposing
! that the other organs are functioning
| normally and so are secreting no I'M
natural pOisons, the amount of poison
| Gus waste products in the body grad
| ually grows larger and larger In the
end fatal amount of poison is pres
ent and the vital organ which happens
| to be most vulnerable gives way. The
result, of course, is death
| 1t is easy to see how Bright's dis
| ease may be produced by a score of
distinct ways. Let US suppose for In
| stance. that A. is a hearty eater, who
eats three large meals a day. drinks
five or six drinks of whisky and takes
but little exercise. For a long while
his stomach. perhaps, will stand the
strain That is to say. lit will digest
the greater part of the rich food
1 heaved into it, despite the continued
presence of alcohol. PEPPER and other
irritants. But in the end ii will grow
weary and begin to fail in it's task.
I hat is to say, it viii reject q great
deal of the food 1T receives and this
food will ferment and form poisons.
For a good while after that. maybe,
nothing alarming will happen, be-
cause the kidneys will seize upon these
poisons and eXpel them. But by and
by, the poisons will increase in amount
and the kidneys, overworked, will be-
gin to grow crippled. The more they
fall short of their increased task, the
| greater will be the amount of poisons
remaining in the body, and the great
er the amount of these poisons, the
more the kidneys will struggle and
strain and the faster they will wear
| themselves out. Finally, there will
come time when they will be prac-
tically useless. And when that time
| comes A. will die.
Again, suppose that B. is a great.
white-skinned, fiabby person of the
typically prosperous sort He guards
himself carefully against draughts and
| takes great care of his health. When
ever 1t storms he wraps himself in a
huge overcoat and puts on goloshes,
He sleeps at night in a heated room.
beneath blankets. He clings to radia-
tors and avoids the open air The skin
of his body, instead of being rough and
hard, like a savage's, is soft and white.
One day, by accident, B. is drenched
by cold shower or has to stand in a
| draughty depot to wait for a train.
| The cold air, striking his skin, drives
the blood from the surface and he
! grows almost blue. If he were a per-
fectly healthy man-if the blood yes
sells or his skin, that is to say, re-
| sponded normally to stimuation-this
1 blood would soon come bounding out
/ again and he would glow pinkly. But,
as We have seen, his skin, instead of
being healthy, has been debilitated by
ooddling, and so the blood forced from
it remains in the depths of his body.
Suppose, for instance, that a great
deal of it goes to his kidneys and
stays there. The result is what is
called congestion of the kidneys, and
1t causes b. to suffer pain, to feel ill
and to go to bed. While this conges-
ton continues-B. calls il "cold''-
the kidneys are crippled and the waste
matter in BIS body backs up. If he is
| iii long enough, enough of 1t backs UP
to keep his kidneys greatly over
worked for a long while after the con-
| gestion is relieved. Under the strain.
perhaps, they become permanently i'm
paired. And when that happens B. is
in the first stage of Bright's disease
Suppose, again. that c. is stout
banker who takes no exercise what
ever. He goes to and from his office in
his automobile and, instead of climb
ing stairs, he uses the elevator. He
has not time for golf and other such
frivOlties, and when he takes a holt
I i t. Io- L., l.;