THE UEINARY TRACT. 751 



3. The relation of the rods to the rest of the reticulum of an epithelial body 

 varies greatly, the variation probably being due to different stages or degrees of 

 secretion. 



4. The reticulum, including the rod-like formations, in the inflammatory proc- 

 ess, both in catarrhal and croupous nephritis, gives rise to a new formation of liv- 

 ing matter, which results in the new formation of medullary corpuscles or 

 pus-corpuscles. 



5. The structureless membrane is lined by flat endothelia lying between it and 

 the basis of the epithelia of the urinary tubules. 



6. In nephritis the endothelia become considerably enlarged, and in catarrhal, 

 as well as in croupous nephritis, they line the urinary tubules after the epithelia 

 have been shed or lost ; they surround the cast in croupous nephritis after the epi- 

 thelia have perished in the formation of the cast. 



Nephritis. Under the head of Bright' s disease are included a 

 number of morbid processes of the kidneys which comprise 

 mainly acute and chronic inflammation and its terminations. 

 No clear understanding of nephritis was hitherto possible on 

 account of the lack of discrimination between its different 

 forms and degrees, although this disease is far more common 

 than is usually thought, as proved by the careful examination 

 of the urine of even apparently healthy persons. Every acute or 

 chronic disease of the organism, terminating fatally, reflects upon 

 the kidneys to such an extent that, with the exception of sudden 

 and accidental deaths, normal kidneys are never found on autopsy. 

 In three hundred post-mortem examinations of persons dead of 

 tuberculosis in its manifold appearances, I have never met with 

 perfectly healthy kidneys ; and in most the cases of persons dead 

 of different acute or chronic diseases, the kidneys were also found 

 in a pathological condition at least, so far as the examination 

 with the naked eye admitted of conclusions. 



Instead of the more modern terms interstitial, desquamative, 

 parenchymatous nephritis, and the insignificant term Bright's 

 disease, involving all varieties of nephritis, I prefer to adopt the 

 old-fashioned terminology of humoral pathology. As explained 

 in previous chapters, every inflammation of glandular organs is 

 interstitial, desquamative, and parenchymatous, as the process 

 starts in the vascularized connective tissue and the epithelia 

 participate, as it were, in a secondary way. I distinguish differ- 

 ent degrees of nephritis, which are : the catarrhal, the croupous, 

 and the suppurative, each of which may be acute, or chronic, or 

 subacute i. <?., chronic with repeated acute recurrences. 



The two following articles are the results of careful researches 

 made on a large number of kidneys both of human beings and of 

 animals. They throw light upon the hitherto dark subject of 



