Clinical nephrology in 19th century Germany

Abstract

Bright's work led to the recognition that coagulable protein in the urine indicated macroscopic kidney disease. After light microscopy was introduced, Simon, Nasse, Henle and Frerichs identified the major constituents of urinary sediment. By 1896, Senator had deduced that hyalin cylinders arise in the kidney tubules, and only the discovery of the Tamm-Horsfall protein in the next century separated him from the modern concept. Chemical analysis of urine also advanced greatly. Recognition of the pressure-volume relationship by Traube was probably the most brilliant achievement related to renal disease, and became the basis of the later pressure-natriuresis relationship. Traube also linked left ventricular hypertrophy with renal disease, recognizing that it maintained circulatory homeostasis at a higher level of pressure. The concept of nephritis changed considerably with technical progress, and Gluge was the first to see inflamed Malpighian bodies or glomeruli. The primary site of damage was disputed by many, including Henle, Pfeufer, Virchow, Reinhardt and Frerichs, but all these workers had to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the autopsy findings. The term glomerulonephritis was first coined by Klebs, and the classification of nephritis adopted by Senator in 1896 led directly to the classic monograph of Volhard and Fahr (1914) on Bright's disease.