Fig. 5.
The Blood-Vessels and Urinary Tubes of the Kidney Ex∣prest by a Microscope.
A, The Proper Membrane of the Kidney.
B B, The Ends of the Blood-Vessels broke off.
C C, The Blood-Vessels of the Kidney which help to compose its Glands.
D D, The Glands of the Kidney compos'd of Blood-Vessels, Urinary Tubes, Nerves and Lympheducts.
The Nerves of the Kidneys as well as of other Glands in the Abdomen furnished with Excretory Ducts, are very few, and their Trunks very small; nor do's any exquisite Pains affect the Kidneys themselves, tho' Stones compos'd of divers Angles are lodg'd in their Glandulous Parts; but the Parts whose Nerves are Complext with those of the Kidneys, suffer most in such Cases. Tho' we reckon the Nerves among the Parts which compose the Glands of the Kidneys, yet we cannot think they are any otherwise Use∣ful here, than Subservient to the other Vessels which are immediately imploy'd in the Secretion of the Urine, as the Blood-Vessels and Urinary Tubes; which are the Parts Or∣ganiz'd for Separating the Urine from the Blood. Nor are the Lympheducts otherwise imploy'd here than we have elsewhere taken Notice of, as in the Liver; to carry off Part of the Succus Nutritius which is constantly convey'd to the Gland it self. How these Parts are Organiz'd, the following Experiments may a little Inform us.
If you Blow into the Emulgent Artery, the Wind will pass into the Vein of that Name, Vreter, and Lympheducts; the the like will happen if you Blow either into the Vreter or Emulgent Vein. If you Inject Mercury, all these Vessels will in like Manner be Distended. If you Syringe Water into the Emulgent Arteries, it will at first pass the Veins and Vreter; but if you continue Injecting it for any time, the whole Kidney will at Length become Distended, and the Water will no longer pass off again by those Vessels. Hence it Appears the Blood consisting of Globular Bodies, (Propor∣tionated to the Magnitude of the Extremities of the Vessels moving in the Serum) readily pass on by a Succession of Glo∣bules still driving others before them; whilst the Urinary Tubes (as they Arise with small Orifices from the Sides of the Extremities of the Blood-Vessels) receive the Thinner or Urinous Part of the Blood, and Discharge it into the Pelvis of the Kidney. In the Body of a Person of the First Rank I lately Dissected, I found the Left Kidney Large, its Texture very Loose; and by Blowing into its Vreter, the Emulgent Vein very suddenly became Distended: In this Person among other Disorders, he had near Twenty Years before his Death, very Feculent Urine: If his Urine was Evaporated by Heat as in a Spoon over a Candle, its Fe∣culent Part became still thicker; by which it appear'd the Nutritious Parts of the Serum of the Blood as well as the Urinous Part, past off by the too great Laxity of the Uri∣nous Pores in the Sides of the Blood Vessels in the Kidney.
E, The Urinary Tubes in their way from the Glands to the Papillae.
F, The Extremities of the Blood Vessels which Compose the Glands of the Kidney.
G, The Urinary Tubes Composing the Papillae, where their Mouths open into one of the Branches of the Pelvis.
H, A Branch of the Pelvis cut off.