THE MICROSCOPE. 163 



teHtll®U£, 



THE MICROSCOPE IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASES 



OF THE KIDNEYS. 



BY I.'F. MARKEL, M. D., MIFFLIN, O. 



THE difficulty of making a diagnosis of some of the diseases 

 implicating the kidney, is apparent when we consider how little 

 is said of the details for the ^investigation of such diseases in the 

 many text-books on general practice. Had the general practitioner 

 the leisure, the proper means at his disposal, and, from previous 

 training, a fitness for exact observation, we should find in a general 

 practice one of the most valuable fields for renal pathology; as here, 

 and here only, we have before us the earliest signs of departure 

 from health, the various changes, the insidious or violent attack, and 

 the only opportunity for tracing Bright's Disease from its beginning 

 to its end. Nothing is said in those same text-books in regard to 

 the preparation necessary for a microscopical examination of the 

 secretion from the kidneys, although some are illustrated by draw- 

 ings of the microscopic appearance of the sediment. 



A cursory examination of our medical journals reveals the sad 

 fact that very little space is ever devoted to the microscope and its 

 value in medical research, and the occasional brief article that is 

 found on this branch of medical science can seldom be credited to 

 our home physicians. It is also to be deplored that our medical 

 schools, or, at least, a vast majority of them, make no attempt to 

 teach any method for investigation in microscopical technology. 



Many young men are each year sent from our colleges as "prac- 

 titioners of medicine" with no knowledge whatever of histology, 

 pathology, and the normal and abnormal secretions of the human 

 body, as revealed by the microscope. One should think that a great 

 number of medical men would possess and be able to manipulate 

 this wonderful instrument. But the revelations of it, and the pro- 

 gress in medical science credited to it, have failed to- enthuse the 

 busy practitioner who graduated from a school where the microscope 

 was not one of the methods of teaching, or a means for investiga- 

 tion; and now few find time for learning and taking up this new 

 occupation and method of advanced investigation. 



The value of the microscope in the differential diagnosis of cer- 



