p. 14 | The Hygiene of the Skin and Kidneys

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 3, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 17.

The Hygiene of the Skin and Kidneys

By William S. Sadler, M.D.

By William S. Sadler, M.D., Author of "The Science of Living, or the Art of Keeping Well."

IN both structure and function, the skin and kidneys are much alike, and may profitably be studied together. The skin consists of two layers or groups of cells,—the true skin, or dermis, and the outer skin, or epidermis. The outer layer of cells in the epidermis is of a horny nature, and at the ends of the toes and fingers is greatly hardened to form the nails. Hairs are special outgrowths from the hair follicles embedded in the skin. The skin contains oil-glands which empty by spiral ducts upon the surface. The sweat-glands are embedded in the skin and also have ducts leading to the surface. In addition to many blood-vessels—little veins and arteries—the skin contains a large number of nerves, including the nerves of temperature, touch, pain, location, and numerous sympathetic nerves.

The average person possesses about seventeen square feet of skin. It is estimated that there are 2,500,000 sweat-glands in the skin. The area of the openings of all these little sweat-glands is about 11,000 square feet. That is, the body's sewer system which has its openings in the sweat-glands of the skin, if represented by a single eliminating tube with but one opening, would have an emptying or discharging surface equal to 11,000 square feet. In many parts of the body, there are as many as 2,500 little sweat pores to the square inch; while the uniting end to end of all the sweat-ducts, which are coiled up in the skin, thus making a single tube, would make a sewer more than ten miles long.

The kidney is divided into numerous compartments, each containing vast numbers of excreting tubules which are lined with epithelium, and whose general structure much resembles that of the skin. Arteries and veins are liberally supplied, and as the blood circulates through these vessels, certain poisons found in the blood stream are selected by the kidney and excreted (really secreted) through its walls into the urinary tubules, which carry the urine through the ureters to the bladder.

It has been estimated that the urinary tubules of the kidneys, if all were united end to end, would form a single drainage tube over fifteen miles in length. Just above the kidney, there is a structure called the suprarenal body, which secretes certain substances which raise and lower the blood pressure.

The Functions of the Skin and Kidneys

The healthy skin is warm to the touch, slightly moist or oily, elastic, free from eruptions, and reacts promptly to rubbing or cold water. The skin is one of the important organs of the body, and should be regarded as a functionating organ, and not as a mere protective covering. Owing to its rich supply of blood-vessels and nerves, it exerts a powerful influence upon the body for health or disease.

Pale Skin

The blood-vessels of the skin can hold more than half of all the blood in the body; therefore, in all cases of pale skin, cold hands and feet, etc., the blood which properly belongs in the skin must be found in some of the internal organs, which are more or less over-distended and congested, and so it follows that the pale, anemic skin usually means congestion of some internal organ from an over supply of blood, producing inflammations, etc. The weakest organ, of course, will suffer most, and this will determine whether the individual has headache, stomach trouble, constipation, or more likely, portal (liver) congestion, resulting in biliousness, the blues, etc.

“Where the pure waters flow and the fresh breezes blow.”

Skin Nerves

The various nerves ending in the skin, make it possible, by the application of heat and cold, rubbing, etc., very wonderfully to control the circulation of the blood in the internal organs. This is possible because of the fact that certain parts of the skin are supplied by nerves coming from the same centers that also send nerves to certain internal organs. Thus the skin comes to be a sort of keyboard, by which the physician may operate and control the internal mechanism of the body, to regulate the circulation of the blood, etc. This is the basis for the modern scientific use of water and other forms of heat and cold in the treatment of diseases.

Sunburn

The skin, when long exposed to the direct rays of sunlight, reacts to the chemical rays of the sunshine by producing a mild condition of inflammation, commonly called sunburn. The skin which is sunburned, or thoroly tanned, has a better circulation of blood through it than the white, pale skin of sedentary persons and those who live indoors.

The outer, horny layer of the skin is constantly dying and must be removed by bathing and rubbing. It is for the removal of these dead scales of the skin that animals go in quest of the "rubbing-post." This is the purpose of daily grooming the horse. It is certainly true that some men take better care of their horses' skins than they do of their own. The skin must also be frequently washed for the purpose of keeping the surface clean, and removing the poisonous excretions which are emptied out upon its surface by the myriads of sweat-glands.

Kidneys

The kidneys, in the excretion of urine, present a problem difficult of solution. The kidney cells seem to possess a power of selection that borders close on intelligence. They select certain substances from the blood and pass them through their walls out into the urinary canals. Other substances which are useful to the body are untouched. Again, the kidney will not secrete sugar found in the blood until it reaches a certain per cent—an amount harmful to the body—and then it begins the energetic secretion of sugar through the urine. As in the case of the salivary and other digestive glands, the kidneys present a problem in secretion that is not wholly explained by the principles of either physics or chemistry.

The kidneys excrete a portion of the water contained in the blood, in the effort to keep the blood at the proper consistency. They maintain the balance in the water supply of the body; consequently the more one sweats, the less urine will be passed. A decrease in the amount of water drunk will also decrease the urine. The color of the urine varies from day to day. In health it is something of a straw-color. Urinary deposits, as ordinarily observed, are meaningless. They sometimes represent grave disease; but, on the other hand, healthy urine, if allowed to stand when containing certain elements, will present deposits of a brick-dust appearance.

The kidneys are greatly injured and overworked by the eating of too much protein — such substances as meat, dried beans, and cheese. Protein ashes must be eliminated through the kidneys. Alcohol, tobacco, and other narcotics also greatly overtax and prematurely wear out the kidneys. Bright's disease is a state where these organs have been long overworked, inflamed, and are so worn out as the result of abuse, that they refuse to do their normal work.

Failure to drink regularly a proper amount of water, allows the urine to become high-colored and concentrated; this is very irritating to the kidneys, and no doubt results in more or less injury to these organs. The health of the kidneys, therefore, depends upon the cultivation of the regular water-drinking habit.