and willing to return; he is liable to suffer an imprisonment of three months.—Nevertheless, there is great reason to apprehend that such iniquitous practices are but too prevalent on the Coast of Africa, and in those distant climates, where the offender is too remote from the courts of justice, or whence it is difficult to procure the requisite evidence.
KIDNEY-VETCH, Anthyllis, L. an indigenous biennial plant, comprising several species, of which the vulneraria, or Lady's-finger, is the principal: it grows in meadows and pastures, in a chalky or calcareous soil; produces yellow flowers from May to August; and its seeds ripen in October.
In the cultivation of this vegetable, no particular care is necessary, farther than to keep it clean from weeds. It affords excellent pasturage for sheep. Linnæus remarks that, when the kidney-vetch grows on a reddish clay soil, the blossoms present a red colour: but, in white clay-land, they are uniformly white.—Although these flowers were formerly celebrated as vulnerary, yet we believe they might be more usefully employed as a dyeing material, and perhaps, as a substitute for indigo; because, in a dry state, they acquire a blue colour. Country people obtain from them a fine yellow dye.—The plant is relished by cows and goats.
KIDNIES, in anatomy, are those two viscera which separate the urine of animals. They are situated in the lower part of the cavity of the abdomen, on each side of t!ie vertebræ of the loins, between the last false rib and the hip-bones. The right kidney lies beneath the great lobe of the liver; and the left, under the spleen: they are generally about five inches in length, three inches broad, and one inch and a half thick, in adults. Their excretory ducts are called ureters, or canals which convey the urine into the bladder.
The kidnies of animals are, in general, tough, acrid, and difficult of digestion: hence they ought not to be eaten by persons of a delicate habit, or of a sedentary life. Those of calves, lambs, and other young animals, may however be used with safety; as they afford a more palatable and congenial food.
Inflammation of the Kidnies, or Nephritis, a painful affection of these parts, attended with a frequent discharge of water, which is either thin and colourless, or very red; with vomiting, coldness of the extremities, difficulty of breathing, numbness of the thigh, and other febrile symptoms.
The remote causes of this inflammatory disease are, stony concretions, external contusions, violent or long continued riding, strong diuretic medicines, such as the spirit of turpentine, &c.—The more immediate causes, are the same as induce other local inflammations.
Cure: In this, as in similar complaints, bleeding is the first remedy to be resorted to, especially by means of leeches. It will also be advisable to apply cloths immersed in hot water and wrung out, as nearly to the part affected as the patient can bear, and to renew them as often as they grow cool. Emollient clysters are also to be frequently administered; and the same treatment must be adopted, as has been already pointed out under the article Inflammation.
Should these remedies fail to
