IN THE KIDNEY. 31 



that elapsed between the application of the ligature, 

 and the puncture of the vein. For it will be re- 

 membered that, in a former case, blood was found 

 in the urine at the end of three minutes and a half 

 after the obstruction took place. 



Three of the above experiments (viz., the 8th, llth, 

 and 12th) are related, not only for the illustration 

 they afford of the general principle here advocated, 

 but from their tending to throw light upon the 

 changes which these engorged organs would subse- 

 quently undergo. The circumstance of blood and al- 

 bumen being present in the urine at so late a period 

 as the third or fourth day after the operation, may be 

 partially explained by the slow progress of bloody or 

 fibrinous coagula along the ureter. At the same 

 time, I think it is possible that some albumen may 

 have been derived from the other kidney, in conse- 

 quence of the increased determination to that organ. 

 I cannot help thinking that the morbid appearances 

 which these three engorged kidneys presented, viz. 

 the formation of an exterior membrane or cyst, the 

 appearance of white spots on the external surface 

 of the organ, as in Experiment 12, and the more 

 extensive disintegration met with in Experiment 8, 

 were but the first of a series of changes which would 

 finally have terminated in the softening down of the 

 whole organ, and its conversion into a puriform 

 mass. And it seems by no means improbable that 

 when abscess of the kidney follows acute nephritis 

 in the human subject, the formation of a bag of pus 

 (as met with in post mortem examinations) takes 

 place in a similar manner, and is preceded by si- 



