Introduction of Uroselectan. In a following paper (pp. 2089-91), A. von Lichtenberg and M. Swick used it in human excretion urography.

Introduction of Hippuran.

Introduction of mandelic acid in the treatment of urinary infections.

First implantation of silicone rubber tube to replace urethra.

Artificial bladder.

The first description of the association of proteinuria and chronic renal disease.

Contains (Cap. cxl) his classic account of renal edema: De duritie in renibus, an English translation of which is in Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd ed., 1945, p. 527.  ISTC no. is00032000.

This work contains the first clear description of proteinuria, noting precipitation of urine with heat or acetic acid. Albuminuria was first described by Dekkers (Chapter V). A translation of this chapter is in Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd ed., 1945, p. 528.

Cotugno published a classic description of sciatica, which is useful even today. He recognized two types – arthritic and nervous; the latter has been called “Cotugno’s disease”, and his book is confined to that type. It includes the first clear description of the association of edema with proteinuria.

Valsalva in 1692 briefly mentioned the cerebrospinal fluid, but “Cotugno was the first to describe the fluid surrounding the spinal cord and to suggest tht it was in continuity with the ventricular and cerebral subarachnoid fluids. However, his concept of the cerebral and spinal fluid, which is the beginning of its modern physiology, remained in obscurity until rediscovery by Magendie some 60 years later” (Clarke & O’Malley). For more information regarding this book and a translation of the section dealing with the cerebrospinal fluid, see the article by H. R. Viets in Bull. Inst. Hist. Med., 1935, 3, 701-38. English translation, London, 1775.

Wells was the first to notice the presence of blood and albumin in edematous urine. He also established the fact that the edema occurred in the upper parts of the body, and he described the uremic seizures to which such cases are liable.

Beside's Bright's classic description of chronic non-suppurative nephritis, known eponymically as “Bright’s disease”, the Reports contain numerous other outstanding contributions to general pathology, neuropathology, and nephrology. Bright differentiated renal from cardiac dropsy (edema) and was first to correlate this and the previously observed albuminuria with the nephritic changes observed at autopsy. Vol. 2, published in 2 parts, is one of the earliest and most important atlases of neuropathology. Superbly illustrated throughout with hand-colored plates. Facsimile reprint of vol. 1, London: Gower Publishers & Royal Society of Medicine, 1985. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

As a result of greater experience on renal disease, Bright rounded off his work on the subject with the above paper, wherein he recorded his extended observations; by this time he had come to more definite conclusions, expecially with regard to the treatment of the condition. Bright’s papers on the subject were reprinted, London, 1937, edited by A. A. Osman.

Rayer insisted on the exhaustive analysis of the urine as an aid to the diagnosis of lesions. He classified “albuminus nephritis” into six distinct forms and distinguished these from other forms of nephritis associated with infection, gout, rheumatism, and toxins. He noticed the existence of albuminuria in diabetes mellitus and also described the existence of renal vein thrombosis. His treatise on diseases of the kidney includes a spectacular color-plate atlas in folio format. The final chapter of the second volume of Rayer's text was translated into English by Diana Berry and Stewart Cameron as The history of albuminous nephritis,  with an introduction by Campbell Mackenzie. (London, 2005). See Gabriel Richet, "From Bright's disease to modern nephrology: Pierre Rayer's inovative method of clinical investigation", Kidney International, 39 (1991) 787-792.

Frerichs divided the progression of renal disease into three stages: initial hyperemia, fatty infiltration and exudation, and organization leading to fibrosis and atrophy. This is one of the earliest works on kidney disease to incorporate histological appearances. However, Frerichs did not recognize the primary involvement of the glomerulus in what later became known as glomerulonephritis. See No. 4212.

Erastus Bradley Wolcott (1804-1880) was first to excise the kidney (for renal tumor). The preoperative diagnosis had been tumor of the liver. Only after the operation did the surgeons realize that they had removed the kidney. The patient lived 15 days after the operation. The operation was recorded by Stoddard.

“Dietl’s crisis”. Dietl described the sudden severe attacks of nephralgic or gastric pain, chills, fever, nausea and vomiting, and general collapse, ascribing them to partial turning of the kidney upon its pedicle. First published in Przeglad Lekarski, 1864, 3, 225, 233, 241.

Hillier performed the first therapeutic percutaneous nephrostomy for giant hydronephrosis with ureteropelvic junction obstruction in a four-year old boy.

A classic description of glomerulonephritis (“Klebs’s disease”) is on pp. 644-48.

First successful planned nephrectomy for urinary tract fistula. A more detailed, illustrated account of the case appears in No. 4214.

Simon was Professor of Surgery at Rostock and Heidelberg. The work was projected as 3 vols., but Simon died before it was completed.

First clear description of arteriosclerotic atrophy of the kidney (“Gull–Sutton disease”), and probably the first description of hypertensive nephrosclerosis.

Johnson showed that fatty infiltrations of the renal tubules are reflected by the presence of fatty casts and droplets in the urine, thus introducing the concept of lipoid nephrosis associated with nephrotic syndrome.

Gowers’s important account of the changes in the retinal vessels in Bright’s disease is reproduced in Willius & Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941, pp. 605-11.

First nephrectomy for malignant disease.

Charcot defined “scarlatinous nephritis” and “amyloid kidney” as distinct pathological entities. English translation, New York, 1878.

Classic study of the pathological anatomy of Bright’s disease.

Hahn devised the operation of nephropexy (nephrorrhaphy) for the relief of movable kidney.

Important modification of Hahn’s operation of nephropexy.

An important investigation of the origin of hypernephroma (“Grawitz tumor”). See also Arch. klin. Chir., 1884, 30, 824-34.

Bozeman treated vesical and fecal fistulae in women, dealing with the complication of pyelitis by catheterization of the ureter through a vesicovaginal opening.

Includes an account of his attempt, 1886, to cure hydronephrosis by a plastic operation – the first recorded surgical intervention for the relief of this condition.

Includes description of the “Trendelenburg position”. Reprinted with translation, in Med. Classics, 1940, 4, 936-88. The first description of Trendelenburg’s elevated pelvic position was given by one of his students, W. Meyer, in Arch. klin. Chir., 1885, 31, 494-525.

First successful plastic operation for the relief of hydronephrosis.

In his nephropexy operation Edebohls utilized flaps of the capsule of the kidney. He believed that decapsulation improved the renal blood supply.

Fenger’s operation for stenosis of the uretero-pelvic junction.

Korányi established cryoscopy of the urine as a kidney function test. See also his later papers in Z. klin. Med., 1897, 33, 1-54; 1898, 34, 1-52. Previously H. Dreser had made experiments on this subject; for these see Arch. exp. Path., 1892, 29, 303-19.

First planned nephrostomy.

Embryoma of the kidney (“Wilms’s tumor”). For the history of the operation for Wilms’s tumor see B. Thomasson and M.M. Ravitch, Wilms Tumor, Urol. Surg., 1961, 11, 83-100.

First operation on the kidneys for the relief of Bright’s disease.

Edebohls introduced the operation of renal decortication for the treatment of chronic nephritis.

Successful autotransplantation of kidneys in dogs.

Voelcker’s kidney-function test.

Introduction of pyelography.

Albarran’s polyuria test for renal inadequacy.

“Albarran’s operation” – nephropexy.

“Focal nephritis”. Löhlein established the importance of the initial inflammatory reaction in the glomerular capillaries in glomerulonephritis. Forms part 4 of Arb. path. Inst. Leipzig.

Carrel revolutionized vascular surgery. He transplanted the kidney from one animal to another, an operation later carried out successfully in man. For his earlier work on vascular anastomosis and transplantation of viscera, see No. 2909.

In 1912 Carrel was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on vascular suture and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs." See also Nos. 3028, 11563, 3026, and 3027.

The phenolsulphonephthalein kidney-function test.

Munk introduced the term “lipoid nephrosis”. He found that urine in such cases contained anisotropic lipoid droplets.

First full description of pure nephrosis, relating clinical features to morbid anatomy.

Commencement of Hinman’s classic work on treatment of hydronephrosis.

Alkaline tide of urine.

Urea concentration test.

Perirenal insufflation of oxygen, for the roentgenological study of the kidney.

First description of the experimental use of peritoneal dialysis in uremia.

Crush syndrome.

Diazo-color test of renal function.

Blood urea clearance test. With J. F. Mcintosh and D. D. Van Slyke.

“Fanconi’s syndrome”, dysfunction of the renal tubules with hypophosphatemia, renal glycosuria, and metabolic disturbances.

Experimental production of acute glomerulonephritis. For Masugi’s later work, see the same journal, 1933-34, 92, 429, and Klin. Wschr., 1935, 14, 373.

“Kimmelstiel–Wilson syndrome”. First description of nodular intercapillary glomerulosclerosis, the only known morphological alteration specific, or almost so, for diabetes mellitus.

Foley’s operation for hydronephrosis.

A description of the morphological changes in the nephrons of diseased kidneys. Hypertrophic, atrophic and aglomerular units are described.

Inulin clearance test.

Bywaters and Beali encountered cases of the “crush syndrome” among victims of the London air-raids of 1940-41.

Ellis’s classification of nephritis.

The Kolff artificial kidney. With H. T. J. Berk and others. Kolff first published his discovery in a neutral country (Sweden) since in 1944 Holland was occupied by the Germans. See also No. 1976.

With H. A. Frank and A. M. Seligman.

Report of first human patient to survive a kidney transplant. The operation was on June 17, 1950, and the patient was discharged on August 26. With four co-authors. See No. 4257.

Oliver’s work on the structural lesions associated with acute renal failure in which he differentiated between the two types of damage: nephrotoxic, due to toxic substances, and tubulorhexic, due to ischemia, established our present understanding of the morphological basis for this condition.

With W. Dubilier and J. C. Monteith.

With Benjamin F. Miller. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

This was the first successful kidney transplant. The patient, both of whose own kidneys had been removed, was alive 11 months after the transplant. With Warren R. Guild. See No. 4256.1.

In 1990 Joseph Murray shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with E. Donnall Thomas (No. 13594) "for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease.”

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for pointing out that this paper was the work for which Joseph Murray was awarded the Nobel Prize.)

Disposable twin coil kidney.

Scribner, Quinton, and Dillard made repeated dialysis possible by their development of indwelling Teflon–Silastic arteriovenous shunts. These became known as Scribner Shunts.

Prostatic carcinoma first reported (p. 279).

Sarcoma of the prostate was first recorded by Stafford.

Mercier emphasized the importance of the muscle fibres around the bladder neck, “Mercier’s bar”, in prostatism.

Adams was the first to distinguish between hypertrophy and carcinoma of the prostate. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Bottini’s galvano-cautery for relief of prostatic obstruction.

Bottini’s Operation for hypertrophy of the prostate.

McGill pioneered the operation of suprapubic prostatectomy, first performed by him in March 1887.

Fuller was the first to accomplish the removal of both intra-vesical and intra-urethral enlargements of the prostate by the process of suprapubic enucleation.

Freyer claimed priority over Fuller (No. 4263) in originating the rectovesical method of prostatectomy. Although mistaken in this claim, Freyer certainly popularized the operation. Regarding the controversy, see Brit. med. J., 1907, 1, 551.

Young’s operation of perineal prostatectomy.

Complete perineal prostatectomy, September 1891.

Watson first performed median perineal prostatectomy in 1889.

First radical prostatectomy for carcinoma.

The distensible bag for controlling hemorrhage after suprapubic prostatectomy was introduced by Briggs in 1905.

Beer’s method of transurethral fulguration of bladder tumours, from which arose the operation of transurethral prostatectomy.

Squier modified the operation of total suprapubic prostatectomy.

Young’s punch prostatectomy operation.

Caulk’s cautery punch.

Geraghty’s modification of Young’s perineal prostatectomy.

Stern’s resectoscope.

Harris’s operation, first described by him on 26 March, 1927, and briefly reported in Med. J. Aust., 1927, 1, 460.

In 1966 Huggins was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering in 1941 "for his discoveries concerning hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer."

Adrenalectomy for carcinoma of the prostate.

Retropubic prostatectomy.

Marianus Sanctus Barolitanus popularized the operation of lithotomy introduced by the father of Giovanni Vigo of Rapallo. This method passed on to Giovanni di Romani and from him to Marianus. It became known as the “Marian operation” and was the forerunner of the more modern lateral lithotomy. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Clifford Allbutt considered Franco the best lithotomist of the 16th century. His skill in extracting the stone by the perineal route was of a high order; in 1556 he introduced the operation of suprapubic cystotomy in operating for stone, which is recorded in the above. Franco also provided the first description of an operation for strangulated hernia. Franco, in 1556, was the first to perform suprapubic cystotomy. Poor, and largely self-taught, he greatly improved the technique of herniotomy.

A renowned specialist and pupil of Bellini, Alghisi was probably the first to use an indwelling urethral catheter to drain urine away from the wound after lithotomy. The inclined position of the patient with the head raised during the operation was also adopted from him. Illustrated with fine copperplates.

Groenveldt was a famous lithotomist, using the suprapubic technique. He also enjoyed a rather unsavoury reputation as a quack for his determination to promote the use of cantharides. He changed his name to Greenfield when he came to England from Holland. in 1674 or 1675. See his earlier shorter work on the same subject, Lithologia. A treatise of the stone & gravel: Their causes, signs, & symptoms, with methods for their prevention and cure. And some account Also of the manner of the collotian section. Written in Latin ... and rendred Into English ... London, 1677. Also see his more extensive and illustrated edition, Dissertatio lithologica variis observationibus et figuris illustrata. London: Typis Joannis Bringhurst, 1684

Douglas accused Cheselden of plagiarizing his work, although the latter had acknowledged his indebtedness to Douglas. It is possible that this was the reason which prompted Cheselden to drop the high operation in favor of lateral lithotomy.

Cheselden was surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital and an outstanding figure in British surgery in the first half of the 18th century. The above work describes his method of performing suprapubic lithotomy, a method which he abandoned in 1727 for the lateral operation. Includes an English translation of Rousset on suprapubic lithotomy, from his book on caesarean section (No. 6236). Rousset laid out the basic principles of the operation although he did not perform it on a living subject. Biography of Cheselden by Sir Zachary Cope, 1953.

François Colot was the last and best-known member of the Colot family, itinerant lithotomists.

Le Dran, famous French lithotomist, improved the operation of lithotomy. Murphy credits him for originating the lateral lithotomy usually attributed to Cheselden, whose method he discusses. Le Dran was one of Haller’s teachers.

Cheselden’s lateral lithotomy first described in this brief paper by Alexander Reid. Digital facsimile from royalsocietypublishing.org at this link.

Frère Côme devised several new instruments for use in suprapubic lithotomy. This operation, placed in retirement when Cheselden adopted the lateral approach, was once more brought to the fore by Frère Côme.  Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Wollaston showed that, in addition to stones consisting of uric acid, renal calculi might also consist of calcium phosphate, magnesium, ammonium phosphate, and calcium oxalate, or a mixture of these.

Carpue popularized suprapubic lithotomy, a procedure not often previously carried out.

Civiale invented a lithotriteur for crushing stones inside the bladder and was responsible for putting the operation of lithotrity upon a sound basis. His claim to have introduced the operation was opposed by Leroy d’Etoilles and other contemporaries.

Heurteloup designed the best lithotrite of the time. He was one of several claimants to the distinction of having introduced modern lithotrity. See Lancet, 1831-32, 2, 567-70.

Posthumously published by Sanson, whose method of rectovesical lithotomy is considered here along with the controversial method of lithotrity. Dupuytren tried both but dropped them in favor of continuing the method of bilateral lithotomy. which he invented in 1812, and which was adopted as the normal procedure, with later modifications.

Heller introduced several urine tests and wrote (above) an important work on urinary calculi.

Introduction of litholapaxy at one sitting.

Nephrolithotomy; removal of a renal calculus by a lumbar incision.

First radiogram of renal calculus.

Géza von Illyés showed that ureteral calculi could be accurately demonstrated by x rays with the help of an indwelling opaque catheter. German translation in Dtsch. Z. Chir., 1901, 62, 132-40.

Kelly tipped the catheter with wax, so that it registered clearly any pressure from sharp stones. This became an important means of diagnosing calculi.

McCarrison’s experiments showed that urinary calculi could follow a diet probably deficient in vitamin A.

Reproduces rare documents and illustrations, with texts by Gilles de Corbeil and de Cuba. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Every aspect of the subject is covered exhaustively by the various contributors to this collective work; valuable bibliographies are included.

A scholarly, detailed work. Part 1 is an adapted translation of E. Desnos: Histoire de l’urologie, in Encyclopédie française d’urologie, eds. A. Pousson & E. Desnos, 1914, 1, 1-294.

First known report of a case of death from hypertrophy of the thymus, in an infant, is reported on p. 172; it is reproduced on p. 239 of J. Ruhräh’s Pediatrics of the past, New York, 1925. Platter first described flexion contracture deformity of the fingers (“Dupuytren’s contracture”) in Liber I, p. 140. On p. 13 he provided the first description of an intracranial tumor —a meningioma. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Although anticipated by Whistler and others in the description of infantile rickets, Glisson’s account was the fullest that had till then appeared. He was first (Chap. 22) to describe infantile scurvy. Glisson’s book on rickets was one of the earliest instances of collaborative medical research in England, combining the observations of Glisson and seven other contributors. G.Bate and A. Regemorter are credited as co-authors. This monograph on the biomechanics of deformities included an early study of the pathologic anatomy of scoliosis. An English translation appeared in 1651.

First description of ankylosing spondylitis. The British Museum copy of the title page of this work has been mutilated, apparently deliberately, in two places; the author’s surname may originally have appeared as “O’Connor”, and the last part of the date has been cut away and appears as MDCXCI; other authorities give 1693 as date. The copy presented to the Royal Society of London is also mutilated to read “Connor”. Connor graduated MD in Reims in 1693. Partial translation by Baruch S. and Jean L. Blumberg, "Bernard Connor (1666-1698) and his contribution to the pathology of ankylosing spondylitis," J. Hist. Med., 1958, 13, 349-66.

(This annotation was last revised in April 2015.)

Page 68: first description of leontiasis ossea.