KIDNEY DISEASE.
Diseases of the kidneys are generally very slow in their inception, coming on gradually and manifesting no special symptoms of their presence until they have assumed a formidable character. For this reason they are the more dangerous. Simple derangement of the urinary secretion is no evidence of disease of these organs, as changes in the color, quantity and specific gravity of the urine are often produced by changes of temperature, active or sedentary habits, mental emotion, and sometimes by articles of diet, or drink, as well as by the use of different drugs.
The existence of disease of the kidneys in the early stages can only be positively determined by a microscopical and chemical examination of the urine, which reveals to us the presence of casts, epithelia, blood, pus, etc. The microscope informs us not only of the presence of disease, but very often of the particular portion of the kidney in which it is located, as well as of the stage which the disease has reached. We are also aided by chemistry in determining the exact abnormal condition of the kidneys by the detection of albumen, sugar, etc. These examinations, by aid of the microscope and chemical re-agents, should never be neglected by the physician. Without them his diagnosis, or judgment of the patient's condition, is simply guess-work. With them he is enabled to base his treatment upon certain and positive knowledge of the patient's real and true condition.
The usual symptoms of chronic disease of the kidneys, but which vary materially with the age, constitutional peculiarities and temperament, are weakness in the small of the back, pains in the region of the loins and groins, numbness of the thigh on the side of the affected kidney (for often only one organ is affected), high-colored and often scalding urine, many times depositing a sediment, sometimes white or milky urine, bloody urine, frequent desire to pass the urine, partial impotency, pains in the testicles and shooting into the loins, suppression or inability to pass the urine, gravel, stone in the bladder, dropsical swellings, swelling of the testicles, irritability and pain in the bladder, mucous and sometimes seminal discharges oozing from the urethra.
When the Bladder is affected the prominent symptoms usually complained of are irritability of the bladder, accompanied by a frequent desire to urinate, inability to retain more than a small quantity of urine, and this for a short time only, pain in the region of the bladder, extending into the back, thighs, etc., hot scalding sensations in passing the urine, sediment in the urine, and sometimes bloody urine. The appetite is usually diminished, there is a depression of spirits, the urine is often passed only by drops, and is irregular in quantity and quality, frequent inability to pass the urine at all, in males partial impotency, with dull disagreeable pain in the testicles and irritation of the urethra, attended with mucous and sometimes seminal discharges oozing from the urethra. Some of these symptoms may be present as the result of functional or organic disease of other organs than the kidneys or bladder, and to distinguish them with positive certainty is impossible without the aid of a microscopical and chemical examination of the urine.