438 THE SOLIDS. 



Reference to the various discrepant, contradictory, and 

 often erroneous statements of many writers on this subject has 

 been hitherto purposely avoided, lest such should obscure the 

 simplicity of the description just given. A few of the more 

 remarkable statements and opinions advanced respecting the 

 anatomy of the renal organs may now, however, be noticed 

 with advantage and interest. 



Every statement, without exception, made by Mr. Bowman, 

 one of the earliest and very best writers on the minute 

 anatomy of the kidney has been from time to time contra- 

 dicted by different observers ; by others, again, the descrip- 

 tions of that gentleman have been confirmed, and not 

 denied. As might be readily imagined, the truth lies not 

 exclusively with either the denying or the confirming ob- 

 servers. 



Thus the reality of any connexion existing between the tube 

 and the Malpighian body has been questioned and denied, 

 and still continues to be so ; as also the existence of a vibratile 

 epithelium in the upper portion of the uriniferous tube. The 

 first particular has been denied by Muller *, Reichert f, Ger- 

 lach and Bidder ; and the second has been doubted or denied 

 by Huschke, Reichert, and Bidder. On the other hand, the 

 observations of Schumlansky J, and A. Koelliker of Zurich 

 accord with those of Mr. Bowman on the first particular, and 

 those of BischofF, Valentin, Pappenheim, Gerlach, and Koel- 

 liker , on the second, the latter observer describing the entire 

 epithelium of the tubes as ciliated. 



It is so easy 9 however, to satisfy ourselves, in the kidney of 

 every animal, of the reality of a connexion between the tube 

 and the Malpighian body, as well as of the presence of a cili- 



* De Glandularum Secernentium Structura Peinitiori, Earumque 

 prima formatione in Homine atque Animalibus, Commentatio Anatomica. 

 Cum Tabulis sen. incisis xvii. Leipsiae, 1830. 



f Bericht tiber die Fortschritte der Mikroscopischen Anatomie in dem 

 Jahre 1842 ; von K.B. Reichert, Prof, in Dorpat, Muller's Archiv, 1843. 



j De Structura Renum, 8vo. 1788. 



Ueber Flimmerbeweg-ungen in den Primordial Nieren, Archiv fur 

 Anatomie, Physiologic, und Wissenchaftliche Medicin, Heft V. S. 518 

 1845. 



