Abstract
The ability of mammals to excrete urine either more or less concentrated than plasma permits them to maintain the osmolality of body fluids within the very narrow range compatible with normal cellular function in the face of wide variations in water and solute intake. This ability has played an essential role in the emergent evolution of mammals [1], permitting them to maintain homeostasis of body fluids in a terrestrial or even desert environment. Although in a general way it is clear that an increased solute load or restricted water intake demand production of a hypertonic urine and that a water load requires a dilute urine, the quantitative relations between urine flow and osmolality and changes in osmolality of body fluids are less obvious. In the next section we develop these ideas of whole body solute and water balance. Essentially the same conservation relations apply to the whole kidney or to any part of it, and mass balance relations applying to the whole kidney and to the renal medulla are developed in subsequent sections.
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