398 The Arteriole Recte of the Mammalian Kidney 
of a corrosion, selected for mounting and special study, which may 
readily be done under the binocular stereoscopic microscope, there are 
broken off during the manipulation small portions which thus become 
detached from the preparation. In Figs. 3 and 4, for imstance, the 
peripheral portions of the interlobular arteries are not in every instance 
fully injected, giving the impression that certain of the interlobular 
arteries present peripheral branches which do not end in glomeruli. Other 
corrosions in which the peripheral branches of the interlobular arteries 
were more fully injected, but in which the injection in other details was 
not wholly successful will serve to show that the interlobular arteries 
end at the periphery of the cortex in branches which are recognized as 
afferent glomerular branches. 
As is well understood, each glomerulus constitutes a rete mirabile, its 
branches uniting to form a single efferent vessel, the vas efferens, which 
is regarded as an arterial and not a venous structure. The efferent glom- 
erular vessels, soon after leaving the glomeruli, divide to form capillaries, 
the disposition of which differs in the different portions of the kidney. 
The efferent branches of the glomeruli, the afferent branches of which 
arise from the arcuate arteries and from the successive branches of these 
until the interlobular arteries are reached, as also the efferent branches 
of a varying number of the glomeruli the afferent branches of which 
spring from the lowermost portions of the interlobular arteries, divide 
into bundles of long, slender branches and capillaries which pass into the 
medulla of the kidney, constituting the arteriole recte of writers, more 
specifically stated the arteriole recte spurizw. The efferent branches of 
the remaining glomeruli divide to form capillary plexuses which sur- 
round the segments of the renal tubules found in the cortex, the efferent 
branches of the glomeruli situated in the outermost portion of the cortex 
passing into the peripheral cortical region free from glomeruli, before 
forming capillary plexuses. It may here be emphasized that there is 
not a difference of kind in the capillary plexuses formed from the effer- 
ent glomerular branches in the different parts of the kidney, but one of 
plexus arrangement determined by the character and arrangement of the 
tubular structures found in the different regions of the kidney. 
As has been previously stated, the majority of recent writers recognize 
the existence of terminal arterial branches which end in capillaries in 
the kidney substance, with which glomeruli are not associated, such 
branches conveying arterial blood to the kidney tubule or portions thereof, 
which has not passed through a glomerulus. Such branches are recog- 
