Selected monographs.

Date:: 1888

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

77/440 (page 61)

phenomenon occurring when the renal vein is only partially occluded or the inferior vena cava is tied,—^in either case the escape of venous blood not being interi'upted for too long a period. From some statements of Weissgerber and Perls (60), in whose experiments the flow through the vein was' thus checked, but for too long an interval for our purpose, we may gather that the excretion of albumen took place primarily and in the most marked degree in the pyramidal portion and medulla of the kidney. For they found the albuminous coagula, which they described as hyaline cylinders/^ chiefly and primarily in the pyramids and looped tubules, but more- rarely and only sparsely in the convoluted portions. A second method of producing congestion consists in cutting off, or reducing, the supply of arterial blood. After- a ligature has been applied to the artery for several hours, the macroscopic and microscopic appearances presented by the kidney are, as ^ already mentioned, but little different from those observed when the vein has been similarly treated for an equal period; the kidney, however, is less swollen, and the engorgement of the medulla as contrasted with that of the cortical portion is more conspicuous ; there is no appreci- able difference with regard to the excretion of albumen. It is no wonder that those who performed experiments of this- kind, discovered no sort of difference between the processes of congestion induced in either manner. But the state of the case is different, if the interruption, this time of the- arterial supply, is removed after a short interval, say eight to ten or twelve minutes. Then we see a considerable excretion of albumen, but in the capsules alone, and only after a longer interval in the urinary tubules as well, and then only in a very inferior degree, altogether different there- fore from what takes place when a ligature is kept on the vein for a short time. A similar result will in all probability be induced, if the artery is not quite closed, but its calibre very much narrowed for a somewhat longer period, as has been done by M. Herrmann and von Overbeck, (61) and resulting in the production, according to their observations, of albu- minous urine, while the afflux of blood continued, though in' a reduced quantity, the urine itself undergoing a very considerable diminution before the albumen appeared. I