PATHOLOGY OF KIDNEY AND LIVER. 3*79. 



XX. OBSEEVATIONS ON THE STEUCTUEE AND 

 SOME OF THE PATHOLOGICAL CHANGES 

 OF THE KIDNEY AND LIVER* 



EESEARCHES into the structure of the healthy human kidney, 

 and into the changes which it undergoes in the granular 

 degeneration described by Dr. Bright, have led me to the 

 following conclusions : 



Without denying the existence of occasional blind extremi- 

 ties of the tubuli uriniferi, the result probably of arrested 

 development, I may state that I have never seen the ducts 

 terminating in this way. I have observed a structure which 

 appears hitherto to have been overlooked by anatomists 

 namely, a fibro-cellular framework, which, pervading every 

 part of the gland, and particularly its cortical portion, per- 

 forms the same important part in the kidney which the cap- 

 sule of Glisson does in the liver forming a basis of support 

 to the delicate structure of the gland, conducting the blood- 

 vessels through the organ, and forming small chambers in the 

 cortical portion, in each of which a single ultimate coil or 

 loop of the uriniferous ducts is lodged. I believe that the 

 urine is formed at first within the so-called epithelium-cells 

 of the ducts ; and that these burst, dissolve, and throw out 

 their contents, and are succeeded by others which perform 

 the same functions. The urine of man has not been detected 

 by me within the cells which line the ducts, but I have sub- 

 mitted to the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, within the last few 



x * Read before Medico-Chirurgical Society, Edinburgh, May 1842. 



