| Abstract: | On 110 preparations of the kidney in some wild animals (hare, fox, wolf, bear, boar and chamois), the blood vessels and the excretory apparatus were studied by dissection, injection-corrosion and microscope. Only the bear has a markedly split kidney, whereas the kidneys of the other animals are unsplit. In the fox there is an obvious split of the renal artery into anterior and posterior branches which supply the anterior and posterior portion, respectively, of the renal parenchyma, being separated from each other, so that we may speak of an anterior and posterior kidney. In the fox, wolf, hare and chamois the interlobar arteries pass through the renal calices in a loop composed of adipose tissue, invested by the epithelium of the renal calyx. The renculi of the bear kidney show complete autonomy in relation to the blood vessels as well as in relation to the excretory apparatus. The relation of the surface of the excretory apparatus to the whole kidney was studied. Thus we have found the fox to have relatively the largest excretory apparatus, whose surface amounts to 31% of the whole kidney. In the remainder of the animals investigated this percentage is considerably less, ranging from 21.7% (boar) to 26.7% (bear). |
