Madame Young's Guide to Health / Her experience and practice for nearly forty years; a true family herbal, wherein is displayed the true properties and medical virtues of all the roots, herbs, &c., indigenous to the United States, and their combination in all the diseases the human body is heir to; also, an explanation of the human body, its liability to injuries through ignorance of its structure. Dedicated exclusively to her sex.

by Amelia Young

THE KIDNEYS.

The kidneys are not in the box of the hips, but above it, in the small of the back, on each side of the back bone. Their office is to separate the salt, earth, and surplus water, from the blood; there is a chamber to each kidney, into which the water is first poured; from each of these chambers, there is a pipe, or tube, that passes downward to the bladder; this tube is called, in physiology, the ureter. The kidneys seem to be a sort of sieve, or filter, with this difference, however: while a sieve permits only the finest and best part to pass through it, the kidneys filter out the worse, or coarser parts; these are carried to the bladder, whence they are conveyed immediately out of the system. In a natural and healthy state, the proper time when the bowels should be evacuated, is indicated by nature; should the water be retained, and the voice of nature disobeyed, the effects are these: as in the bowels, it will lessen the action of the bladder and kidneys, and what you retain, does more injury than you can possibly imagine; your kidneys become coated by retention—thence come gravel, stone, stoppage of the urine, and various other diseases of the kidneys and bladder.

Never trifle with nature. What pain and suffering might be averted, if all would obey the first call of nature! By retention of the urine, a bad odor arises from the body; what you retain in the bladder, is emitted from the pores in a measure, and your perspiration is very offensive. Mothers ought to instruct their children in regard to this important call of nature. I have found, in my practice, a great number who habituated themselves to retain the water in the bladder all day, that is, from morning to bed time; and what miserable looking objects they were; their countenances were sallow, and the skin dry and withered, although young in years.

The kidney may be ulcerated, and contain grubs, as well as the liver, it being likewise a gland, but much smaller than the liver. You can injure the kidneys by food, as all water or liquids go immediately to the kidneys; sweet spices and all acids should be avoided, as they coat the kidneys, and cause the gravel; the ureter, or pipe which takes the water to the bladder, finally gets filled and obstructed, so the water cannot pass thence.