I have purposely dwelt on this part of this subject, owing to the recent origin and publication of many of the views connected with it; also on account of the greater ease of making the subject plain by fully discussing each step of the process; and if the views of Sir Lionel will be recalled, that a toxic element in the blood is the starting-point, and that an irritable or weakened organ invites destruction,--the induction of serious and fatal kidney disorder by the transmitted irritability and consequent injury to the kidney produced by preputial irritation in the first instance, and the supplemental blood-poisoning by intestinal absorption of septic matter, which soon brings about Sir Andrew Clarke's "inadequacy of kidney,"--all will be readily understood. When this point is reached, a too hearty meal, exposure to variable weather, or a little extra care or anxiety, are sufficient, as determining causes, to bring life into danger. As pointed out, many cases of Bright's disease or other renal difficulty have their origin in this distant but visible source, and, although malarial poisoning and a great number of other causes will produce the same particular organic changes and diseases, this condition must be admitted as one of the frequent causes. The influence of the genito-urinary tract on the rest of the economy, and the importance of the sympathy it excites, or how quickly, by its being irritated, some apparently dormant pathological condition will be awakened to life and activity, is not sufficiently appreciated. As observed by Hutchinson, a patient who has once been the subject of intermittent fever is more prone, on catheterization, to have a urethral chill and fever than one who had never had the fever. (Hutchinson: "Pedigree of Diseases.")