On dropsy connected with disease of the kidneys-morbus brightii-and on some other diseases of those organs, associated with albuminous and purulent urine, illustrated by numerous drawings from the microscope / by W. R. Basham.

  • Basham, W. R. (William Richard), 1804-1877.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On dropsy connected with disease of the kidneys-morbus brightii-and on some other diseases of those organs, associated with albuminous and purulent urine, illustrated by numerous drawings from the microscope / by W. R. Basham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    27/284 (page 9)
    varying course. The relation, if any, which exists between the various characters of these deposits, and different stages and different forms of the disease, may thus he easily ascer- tained. The epithelial cells thrown off from the renal tubes, as well as the casts accompanying them, suffer very material and obvious alteration as the disease of the kidney advances. These consist in palpable deviations from the standard structure of healthy epithelium. It is not necessary to give any detail of the minute anatomy of the kidney; it is presumed that the reader is familiar with Mr. Bowman's researches into the structure of the kidney (f Phil. Trans.'), and every pathologist recognises the aid which those researches afford him in studying the diseases of these organs. The epithelium lining the channels through which the urine flows differs in appearance in different parts. In the convoluted tubes it performs the office of gland- cells, and according to Mr. Bowman these cells probably secrete the urine. The individual cells are spherical, sometimes appear- ing oval in shape, and by apposition become somewhat of a hexagonal appearance; they have a single nucleus, and appear slightly granular. The epithelial cells lining the straight tubes are larger in appearance, less granular, contain a single nucleus, and their office probably is rather protective than glandular. They are the last to exhibit any character of degeneration, and in some forms of disease of the kidney, while the cells at the base of the cones are extensively decayed, those at the apex still exhibit all the characteristics of healthy epithelium. The epithelial cells of the uriniferous tubes never appear in the urine but under the influence of disease. The epithelium of the calyces, pelves of the kidneys, and ureters, is simply protective. These cells are more or less ovoid when isolated, they frequently are seen in groups of two or three, they then appear somewhat pyriform, they are much larger than those of the straight tubes, and they approach in character to the tesselated or pavement variety. They never appear in the urine under the ordinary circumstances of health. But in urine highly charged with uric acid, as in an attack of what is called