A MARK WITH ONLY ONE KIDNEY. 
71 
had. but one kidney. It was at the entrance to the pelvis, a little 
to the left. Its form was that of the right kidney. It was as large 
as two ordinary kidneys. Its scissure was situated posteriorly, and 
permitted the passage of a large vein and a ureter. Anteriorly 
it received, from a point immediately opposite to the scissure, 
a very considerable arterial branch of the ordinary size of the 
emulgent artery, and which separated itself from the abdominal 
aorta between the pelvic and crural trunks. 
This kidney was situated a little obliquely. The superior face 
corresponded to the division of the sacrum and the last lumbar 
vertebra. The anterior border was on a level with the bifurcation 
of the aorta, and its right angle was situated more posteriorly than 
the left. The ureter terminated on the left side of the neck of the 
bladder, but presented no abnormal appearance, and was about the 
usual size. The renal cavity was a little larger than usual, and 
the infundibulum was also capacious. The texture of the kidney 
was natural. One super-renal capsule was near this left kidney : 
the other capsule, and not exhibiting, any more than the first, any 
unusual appearance, was also situated to the left, and as high as it 
was usually found. There was nothing on the right side. 
Not having met with any case resembling this amidst the nume- 
rous anatomical and pathological facts that have been hitherto pub- 
lished, we thought that this curious case possessed some interest, 
and have therefore laid it before our readers. 
Journal Theorique, 1835, p. 170. 
[This is, I believe, the only case on record of the total absence of the 
kidney in any of our patients, and it is inserted here as some- 
what illustrative of Mr. Bainbridge’s case, as reported in the 
Abstract of the Proceedings of the Association. There is a point 
of physiology which deserves attention here, and I believe that 
the fact has been the same in the very few cases of a single 
kidney recorded of the human being. One kidney is altogether 
wanting, but both the supra-renal capsules are found, and 
little or not at all diminished. This does not throw any light 
on the actual design and function of these capsules, but it proves 
that they are, to a certain degree, independent of the kidney. 
They exist where no kidney is to be found. 
Again ; the single kidney, wherever it is found, is not in its 
natural situation : it is partly or wholly in front of the vertebral 
column. M. Dupuy describes the one which he saw as being 
situated at the entrance to the pelvis, and a little to the left. 
We should expect to find it here, from the better supply of nerves 
and bloodvessels to enable it to discharge its double function. 
There are two other circumstances of which M. Dupuy does not 
