urates and phosphates in such abundance as to form a powdery deposit on the surface."

I desire to carry your minds yet further to the consideration. of certain rare and paradoxical cases which are disposed of in explanation by the same truth as are the foregoing. An ischuria occurred in my own practice two years ago in a case of cancer of the uterus. About three months before death hæmorrhages from the uterus ceased entirely, and there was not, at any time, sensible discharge of pus or offensive odor about the case. At one time, subsequently, urination was suspended for six days. There was no distension of the bladder, and the catheter failed to find urine. The vesical and renal regions were free from pain. The usual limited amount of ingesta was taken. There was no sensible perspiration; the cellular tissues did not make collections; the faces were hard and dry, being passed every second day, and she felt as well as usual. At the end of the time the function was resumed by the expulsion of the usual amount of apparently normal urine. After two weeks the urine was again stopped, with the same phenomena, for the remarkable space of sixteen days.

The greatest care was exercised by attendants at this juncture, to avoid the possibility of error. The patient's clothes were always dry, and the bowels constipated. Again the function. was resumed, and for three weeks the normal habit was maintained, when it was again interrupted by another six days' suspension. Once more established, it was not again discontinued till death, which came in about ten days. The autopsy revealed a bladder wall perfect, ureters normal and kidneys greatly hypertrophied, having an individual weight of seven ounces. The renal tissue was pale but otherwise normal in appearance. The os and cervix uteri were entirely consumed, and the fundus was only a mass of diseased and putrid tissue.

Hufeland's Journal for August, 1827, contains the report of a case of "total ischuria for seven weeks, with absolutely no substitutional discharge, and apparently accompanied by a perfect state of health." This case, occurring in practice of Drs. Hubenthal and Gramm, of Wietefosk and Riga, is given in very minute detail, with treatment, and ended in recovery.

The patient, a boy of twelve years, of wealthy parents, after slight gastric illness, suspended micturition, and did not pass a drop for the space of seven weeks. "He had hard, dry stools every second or third day. He never perspired, his skin being always dry, even after using prescribed warm soap baths. He ate moderately and drank daily liquid to the amount of a pint and a half. All this time his sleep was quiet and refreshing, and he felt perfectly well. Had no disagreeable sensation in renal or vesical region, and no part of his body was ever swelled." "In consideration," it is said, " of the wealth of the parents, who withheld no means to procure help for their child, and were exceedingly anxious for his relief, and the patient himself, who greatly desired to be cured, and the strict and constant supervision to which he was subjected, deception could not have been practiced."

On page 62 of a practical treatise on the diseases of the kidneys, by Dr. George Koenig, of Leipsig, 1826, is mentioned a case of Dr. Parr's, where a total suppression of the urinary excretion lasted for six weeks, during which, for a day or two only, a copious perspiration took place.

The same writer, out of the Bibliothèque Medicale for 1815, cites a case of total ischuria of several months' duration, which, by gradual exhaustion, ended with death.

The question now arises, What are we to do with these facts? It will not do to cry them down and sneer in derision at those who have had honesty and bravery enough to report them. It will not do to cast them aside with a puff because they come in apparent conflict with our received physiology. No; that will be puerility and satisfied ignorance. Science demands that the facts be investigated and explained, for fact is beyond everything, it is below everything and upon it everything must stand.

Descending to the lower orders of animated life, we find among the organs what is termed "community of function," by which is meant interchangeable or substitutional ability of function; lungs, for instance, that will and do answer not only for respiration, but digestion, secretion, excretion, absorption and exhalation. A few organs, in fact, doing in embryo all that is accomplished in our complex being.

We find, as progression is made in the scale of being, that there is a gradual specialization of function being established, one organ after another being settled in separate work, while it still retains its original powers in the community, its ability to assume and discharge the duties of its neighbor. This principle can be readily traced through all the gradations of animal advancement, the lines of special function growing more distinct while the original community of function is never entirely obliterated. This is a fact of such convincing observation that the following law has been established: "In cases where the different functions are highly specialized, the general structure retains more or less the primitive community of function which originally characterized it." And out of this law can be drawn satisfactory explanation for all these deviations in function, these most remarkable metastases. For somewhere in the line of evolution shall we find our special functions performed in other manner, as in the batrachia, where respiration can be carried on perfectly through the skin, and of which power we preserve a trace; or as in reptiles and birds, where the intestinal canal assumes the duties of our urinary apparatus and voids the urine in a semifluid. or solid state. An instance of this is happily shown in the case of the ostrich, a bird which discharges its urine in solid chunks of several ounces weight, and which, upon analysis, is proven to be almost entirely composed of urea.

Hence we can understand how these products of decomposition at least, which accumulate in the blood where the usual exit-pipe is no longer open, may find their way through other channels, and we come to a better comprehension of this provision for vicarious service, which is obviously intended to diminish the injurious results of a suspension of the excretory functions, and which is, at the same time, in complete and beautiful harmony with the general principle that the specialization of a function does not involve the complete extinction of its original generality.

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