The examination of the urine / by J.K. Watson.

  • Watson, J. K. (James Kenneth)
Date:
[1903]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The examination of the urine / by J.K. Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/40 (page 6)
    G The Urine and its Examination. portant organs for the removal of waste material, or, as we commonly say, excretory organs. (For diagram see p. 17.) The urinary apparatus consists of the two kidneys, right and left, their respective ducts, the ureters, the bladder, or reservoir where the urine is stored, and the outlet of the bladder, the urethra, which ends in an aperture, the meatus. The kidneys lie on the posterior wall of the abdomen, in the loin, behind the peritoneum, which lines the abdominal cavity and covers, to a large extent, its contents. This is of importance to the surgeon who is able to reach the kidneys frona behind without interfering with the peritoneum. Their shape is so well known that we are accustomed to use the term kidney-shaped as a descriptive one. They are sur- rounded by a varying quantity of fat. Their length is about four inches and they weigh about four and a-half ounces. The inner or concave edge of the organs contains a depression called the hilum. Here the ureter leaves the kidney and the blood-vessels and nerves pass into and out of the organ. The kidneys are covered with a tunic, the capsule, which, in the healthy organ, can be stripped off, but in disease of the kidney it may be difficult or impossible to remove it. The essential structure of the kidney, the secreting part, consists of a complicated system of tubules and tufts. The former communicate with a cavity, called the pelvis (Latin pelvis, a basin) of the kidney, which gives origin to the ureter This cavity may indeed be regarded as the upper, swollen, or dilated end of the ureter. Sometimes it becomes enormously distended, at the expense of the kidney substance. Such a condition is liable to occur when the ureter becomes blocked, as may occasion- ally happen from the impaction of a stone (calculus) in its interior, and the urine is dammed back in the kidney. The