Dropsy, nephrosis, nephrotic syndrome

The first effective treatment for a kidney disease, 1950. Dropsy is an ancient word (first recorded about 1290 AD) meaning oedema. Genera...

The glomerulus is a filter

Physiologists resolve an anatomical impasse, 1924 Illustrations of Malpighian bodies, from Bowman 1842, Philosophical Transactions 132: 57-...

Acute nephritis in 1875

50 years after Bright Richard Bright’s 1827 report created the discipline of nephrology and triggered an exciting period of clinical resear...

Richard Bright and the discovery of kidney disease

Nephrology is born, 1827 Fig 1 from Bright 1827.  (Wellcome Images) Richard Bright (1789-1858), is widely regarded as the founder of the spe...

Lithotomists: the first nephro-urological specialists

A sound has been passed from the penis into the bladder. With the genitalia held out of the way, and the patient strapped firmly to the tabl...

Marathon nephritis and postural proteinuria

When urinary abnormalities don’t indicate renal disease From Tom Brown at Oxford  (1861) illust Sydney P Hall (1903 edition) Richard Bright’...

Lead nephropathy

The oldest interstitial renal disease? Lead pipe in Roman Bath.  (Wikimedia Commons, see foot) Severe abdominal colic and gout caused by lea...

Monkey glands and the science of renal hypertension

Quack medicine and technology contributed to the discovery of Renin in 1898 A 1928 advert exploiting the Monkey Gland craze.   Source In 188...

Blood pressure is linked to kidney disease in the 1870s

Revealed by Mahomed’s sphygmograph The discovery of hypertension and its linkage with renal disease came remarkably late.   Richard Bright ...

The invention of the dipstick

Test papers to dipsticks in 72 years  The SSA test came first. From Cornell Vet School, with permission* For urinary protein detection the b...

The invention of IV fluid therapy

Thomas Latta first used IV saline in the 1832 cholera epidemic IV infusions at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in the 1970s The second worldwide p...