Adenochoiradelogia, or, An anatomick-chirurgical treatise of glandules & strumaes or, Kings-evil-swellings : together with the royal gift of healing, or cure thereof by contact or imposition of hands, performed for above 640 years by our Kings of England continued with their admirable effects, and miraculous events, and concluded with many wonderful examples of cures by their sacred touch / all which are succinctly described by John Browne.

CHAP. XIX. Of the Renal Glandules.

THese Renal Glandules are by Casserius called Succenturiati,* 1.1 and by Bartholine Capsulae Atrabilariae. The Omentum and Pancreas being laid aside; these do readily shew them∣selves; And Wharton calls them Glandulae ad Plexum.* 1.2 They are Two Glandulous Bodies, one being given to each Kidney, planted under the Diaphragma, above the Adipose Membrane, so as the right is joyned to the Vena Cava, and the Left put towards the Ventricle; they are found in the place where the Plexus of the Nerves do appear, to which they are firmly affixt; they do not generally exceed the number of Two, carrying in them much of the substance of the Kidney, save only their being more loose, of a Reddish Colour, some∣what

inclineable to Fat; they are seen to carry and bear several Figures in divers Persons and Animals, being seen sometimes Oval, sometimes Tri∣angular, and sometimes Round; their Magnitude is not always alike in young People,* 1.3 they equal the big∣ness of a small Nut, and are small, and the Right doth generally appear larger than the Left, and it's very seldom that the Left do get the same advantage; they do not increase in proportion according to the other parts of the Body, nor bear a like time therewith as to their growth, and about pubertation to further Increment, they plainly do cease their growth; in large creatures these Glandules do appear larger, than they do in those who are of a more slender and smaller growth; and age coming on, they leave off growing with it; and when many other parts of the Body do by sickness or disaster meet with change, as to their former Being, yet these parts do seldom feel any thing thereof, for they do retain their bulk, as is made good by the example of Dr. Glisson,* 1.4 in his Book De Rhacitide, where writing of a

Child falling from the Rickets into a Consumption, and Fever supervene∣ing, forc'd her to quit her Life; she being opened, altho her Thymus was near consumed, yet these Glandules were found firm. They are cover∣ed with a thin Coat, by which they are firmly annext to the exterior Membrane of the Kidneys: They have an apparent sinuous Cavity,* 1.5 but this is so small, that it scarce admits a Pea into it; and this is better seen in a Foetus than afterwards, the which contains a black and feculent Matter in it, with whose colour its inward guard is tinged. In the greater end of this Glandule is seen a certain con∣spicuous Cavity, into which many Cavities arising from the substance of the Glandule, do terminate with open mouth, and this Cavity opening its self into the next Vein, is defended with a Valve opening towards the Vein, and shut backwards. They do for the most part take an Artery from the Emulgents, sometimes from one, or many Membranes of the Aorta, or great Artery.

* 1.6The Use of these Glandules is yet unknown, but many conjectures are past upon them; thus some with Veslingius do suppose, that they do assist the Tract of the Serum, and do collect the Atra bilis; the which like a Coagulum or Crud, doth promote the separation of the Serum from the Blood; others do suppose, that they do defend and keep up the divisions of the Reteform plexus of the Nerves; Some think that they do give warmth to the Stomack. Glisson doth write, that they do separate the Juyce de∣signed for the nutrition of the Nerves, from the Blood, that hereby it may be sent to them more pure and refined: All which Opinions are meerly conje∣ctural; and whereas there are some who do think that in these, some Coagulum is made, which thence pas∣sing to the Kidneys, do there make a fit separation of the Serum from the Blood; altho this Opinion may in all likelyhood carry much Truth in it, yet till these passages, which make their way through these Glandules to the Kidneys be more apparent, how this separation is performed (as we have already shewn of the Spleen)

this must only come under the name of conjecture. And since their use is at this day kept in the dark, and that no Physicians or Anatomists have given any light as to their uses; many diseases being believed to arise hence, some ingenious Men would do the World good service, and their Pro∣fession, Reputation, to make known thereto, what observations they have made of them in dead Bodies, both as to their Diseases and Distempers.

Eustachius lib. de Renib. does give a very remarkable story of the Kid∣neys of a Woman,* 1.7 who after her Tra∣vel in Child-bearing▪ and a plentiful excretion of Blood which came from her, she dying, and her Body being opened, her Kidneys were seen white, fragile, and putrid, under whose pro∣per Membrane so much of Wind had been collected, that it seemed as it were divided from its subject flesh; being so distended and turgid, that it very much resembled the species of a great Tumour. And that we may see all parts are not in all men made alike, we shall find Jacobus Carpus in Isagog. Anatom. telling us there, That in the year 1541. he saw in a publick Ana∣tomy,

one Artery, making or framing a passage out of the Emulgents into the Right Side out of the Kidney; the which past in a notable distance under the Kidneys into the Uritery passage, arising from the aforesaid Kid∣ney, and both went, or were carried by one channel to the Bladder; yet this Emulgent Artery also entred the Kidney in its due place; and in this individual, the Kidneys were whole and seemed as one, and had two Ar∣teries, and two Emulgent Veins, and two Ureter passages, covered with one only pannicle, which also kept the usual places of the Kidneys, about the middle of the Back, that is in that place, between the Spleen and the Liver, a little beneath it. Hercules Saxoniae observat▪* 1.8 shewed the whole flesh of the Right Kidney cut away from its proper Membrane, fallen in∣to the Bladder, before Fifty and more of his Auditors: where also he tells you of the whole substance of the Kidney being resolved in Caruncles, and these being sent into the Bladder, did there produce such a suppression of Urine, that it procured the death of the patient which was therewith troubled.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Their Name.
• * 1.2

  Their Site.
• * 1.3

  Magni∣tude.
• * 1.4

  History.
• * 1.5

  Cavity.
• * 1.6

  Uses.
• * 1.7

  History.
• * 1.8

  History.