ON THE EXPERIMENTAL PRODUCTION OF EDEMA BY 



NEPHRECTOMY. 



By W. W. SWINGLE. 



{From the Laboratory of Comparative Anatomy, Princeton University, Princeton.) 



(Received for publication, March 27, 1919.) 



The question of the causation of edema is one that has interested 

 clinical pathologists and other investigators for many years. Though 

 much has been done to clear up certain phases of the problem, it has 

 still remained in doubt to what extent, if any, a generalized edema of 

 the body may be due to an inefhciency of the kidney function. Re- 

 cently, however, the work of McClure^ has shed considerable light 

 upon this obscure problem. 



McClure has shown that the edematous condition frequently met 

 with in young frog larvae is invariably associated with a deficiency in 

 the development of the head kidney (pronephros) . Furthermore, he 

 has been able to produce an edematous state of the body at will in 

 adult frogs and toads by ligation of the ureters. His experiments 

 clearly show that a generalized edema of the body may result in 

 Anura from a block in the kidney function. 



The writer concluded that it might be of interest in this connection 

 to extirpate the pronephros or head kidney of very young frog larvae, 

 shortly before the period when this organ becomes functional. Ac- 

 cording to the viewpoint of McClure edema should result in such cases. 

 The results justified expectations, as the following experiments show. 



Several egg masses of Rana sylvatica LeConte were collected and 

 brought to the laboratory to develop. Evidently the eggs had been 

 laid early in the morning of the preceding day, for most of them were 

 in early segmentation stages (8 to 16 cells). The larvae hatched 

 within a few days and were apparently normal in every respect. 



^ McClure, C. F. W., On the experimental production of edema in larval and 

 adult Anura, /. Gen. Physiol., 1918-19, i, 261. 



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