EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON NORMAL KIDNEY AND KIDNEY OF BRIGHT'S DISEASE: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

THE EXCRETION OF ALCOHOL BY THE KIDNEY Alcohol is assumed frequently to be a renal irritant, although the amount eliminated by the kidney after its ingestion is relatively small. Miles 1 has shown that after a single dose of alcohol (about 0.5 cc. per kilogram of body weight) in a human being only 1.2 to 1.6 per cent of the amount ingested is excreted within the first two hours. In the next six hours approximately 0.3 per cent is excreted; the urine is practically alcohol free in eight hours. Haggard and Greenberg 2 have shown that in dogs the percentage of the total amount of alcohol lost through the kidneys depends on the quantity of urine passed and that in sixteen hours varies from 2.4 to 4.3 per cent of the alcohol ingested. These values confirm the earlier work of Binz, 3 Heubach 4 and and others. 5 In a fatal case of alcohol poisoning, Juckenack 6 found the concentration of alcohol in the kidney to be 0.37 per cent and in the urine 0.65 percent. ALCOHOL AND BRIGHTS DISEASE In 1932 Langmead and Hunt 7 said "The drinker undoubtedly shows some increasing susceptibility to