A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF RENAL STRUCTURE KNOWLEDGE (FROM GALEN TO MALPIGHI)

This work documents the progressive gain in knowledge on renal anatomy acquired by anatomists from Galen to Malpighi. Galen, with albeit his rather imaginative explanations, was the first anatomist to recognize the urine producing function of the kidney. His influence was felt up to the Middle Ages; his followers imagined the presence of two caviti es within the kidney that were separated by a porous membrane that the y called the ''colatorium'' which was capable of filtering the urine f rom the blood. It was only later that Berengario da Carpi, divorcing h imself from Galenic dogmatism, finally dismissed the presence of the c olatorium. He described the renal papillae and gave the first elementa ry model of renal vascularization. Further important progress was due to the studies of Falloppius and Eustachius who brought contemporary u nderstanding of renal structure to the limit of what could be seen wit h the unaided eye. They distinguished the difference between the unilo bar canine kidney and the human multilobar organ, they also described the minor and major calyces and, furthermore, guessed at the canalicul ar structure of its parenchyma. Highmore was then responsible for the description of the archiform vessels which he hypothesized as an arter io-venous anastomotic net between the renal cortex and medulla. With t he invention of the microscope, new doors opened for the study of rena l structure. Bellini proved the canalicular organization of the parenc hyma and, moreover, described the interlobular vessels. Malpighi then described the glomerulus and its relation to the intrarenal excretory ducts. The basis had now been laid for the beginning of modem nephrolo gy.