THE PATHOLOGY OF THE KIDNEY.SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

Abstract

There are few organs in the body in which both structure and circulation are so complex as in the kidney. There is some variation in the size of the kidneys, depending on the life of the individual. The increased exercise of function as in potators is accompanied by increased size. The congenital anomalies are chiefly those of position and do not especially influence either intimate structure or function. In the congenital absence of one kidney we find in the other practically the same tissue arrangement, but the amount is doubled. In no other secreting organ do we find such differentiation of structure as that represented by the glomeruli and tubules. It is possible to think of the tubules not only, as glandular secreting organs with a remarkable differentiation of epithelium in different parts, but as serving simply as the excretory ducts of the glomeruli. No other organ in the body