Diagram of kidney circulation, showing a glomerulus and tubule: a, artery bringing blood to part; b, capillary bringing blood to glomerulus; b', vessel continuing with blood to vein; c, vein; t, tubule; G, glomerulus.
Wastes given off by the Blood in the Kidney.—In the glomerulus the blood loses by osmosis, through the very thin walls of the capillaries, first, a considerable amount of water (amounting to nearly three pints daily); second, a nitrogenous waste material known as urea; third, salts and other waste organic substances, uric acid among them.
These waste products, together with the water containing them, are known as urine. The total amount of nitrogenous waste leaving the body each day is about twenty grams. It is passed through the ureter to the urinary bladder; from this reservoir it is passed out of the body, through a tube called the urethra. After the blood has passed through the glomeruli of the kidneys it is purer than in any other place in the body, because, before coming there, it lost a large part of its burden of carbon dioxide in the lungs. After leaving the kidney it has lost much of its nitrogenous waste. So dependent is the body upon the excretion of its poisonous material that, in cases where the kidneys do not do their work properly, death may ensue within a few hours.
Diagram of a section of the skin. (Highly magnified.)
Structure and Use of Sweat Glands.—If you examine the palm of your hand with a lens, you will notice the surface is thrown into little ridges. In these ridges may be found a large number of very tiny pits; these are the pores or openings of the sweat-secreting glands. From each opening a little tube penetrates deep within the epidermis; there, coiling around upon itself several times, it forms the sweat gland. Close around this coiled tube are found many capillaries. From the blood in these capillaries, cells lining the wall of the gland take water, and with it a little carbon dioxide, urea, and some salts (common salt among others). This forms the excretion known as sweat. The combined secretions from these glands amount normally to a little over a pint during twenty-four hours. At all times, a small amount of sweat is given off, but this is evaporated or is absorbed by the underwear; as this passes off unnoticed, it is called insensible perspiration. In hot weather or after hard manual labor the amount of perspiration is greatly increased.
Regulation of Heat of the Body.—The bodily temperature of a person engaged in manual labor will be found to be but little higher than the temperature of the same person at rest. We know from our previous experiments that heat is released. Muscles, nearly one half the weight of the body, release about five sixths of their energy as heat. At all times they are giving up some heat. How is it that the bodily temperature does not differ greatly at such times? The temperature of the body is largely regulated by means of the activity of the sweat glands. The blood carries much of the heat, liberated in the various parts of the body by the oxidation of food, to the surface of the body, where it is lost in the evaporation of sweat. In hot weather the blood vessels of the skin are dilated; in cold weather they are made smaller by the action of the nervous system. The blood thus loses water in the skin, the water evaporates, and we are cooled off. The object of increased perspiration, then, is to remove heat from the body. With a large amount of blood present in the skin, perspiration is increased; with a small amount, it is diminished. Hence, we have in the skin an automatic regulator of bodily temperature.
Sweat Glands under Nervous Control.—The sweat glands, like the other glands in the body, are under the control of the sympathetic nervous system. Frequently the nerves dilate the blood vessels of the skin, thus helping the sweat glands to secrete, by giving them more blood.
"Thus regulation is carried out by the nervous system determining, on the one hand, the loss by governing the supply of blood to the skin and the action of the sweat glands; and on the other, the production by diminishing or increasing the oxidation of the tissues."—Foster and Shore, Physiology.
Colds and Fevers.—The regulation of blood passing through the blood vessels is under control of the nervous system. If this mechanism is interfered with in any way, the sweat glands may not do their work, perspiration may be stopped, and the heat from oxidation held within the body. The body temperature goes up, and a fever results.