Older pathologists believed that the ultimate fate of the kidney glomerulus in chronic nephritis is fibrinous degeneration with the formation of a permanent hyaline scar. The ratio of normal glomeruli to hyaline scars, therefore, was taken as a reliable index to the extent of the kidney degeneration. Doubt as to the validity of this assumption has recently been expressed by pathologists, who conceive the possibility of complete absorption of degenerated glomeruli without the formation of permanent scars.
Joelson, Beck and Moritz1 of the Laboratory of Surgical Research, Western Reserve University School of Medicine, for example, made histologic sections of dog kidneys at varying intervals after unilateral urethral obstruction. From these sections they inferred a probable reduction in the total number of glomeruli which was greater than that indicated by the percentage of hyaline glomerular remnants.
This inference is confirmed by Moritz and Hayman,2 who have applied to the