.MTM5Ng.MTIwNTM5

missions and the deteriorating blood chemistries as they revealed the phases of nephritis and the unremitting progressive destruction of the kidneys. it was striking and depressing to note the big bundle of pink, blue, yellow and white sheets of the bulky record, covered with data [describing - crossed out] ?burt?aling? the total lack of insight on the part of medical science toward a disease which at that time was listed among the three greatest killers. Described by Richard Bright early in the 19th century, the pathology of the kidneys had been elaborated as tissue staining techniques became more refined, so that we were all familiar with the changes which converted the complicated architecture of the normal organ into a lump of fibrous tissue; but no knowledge existed concerning pathogenesis, the agent which was causing the damage. Hence, there was no rational treatment for the disease, not even an effective remedy for some aspects of it.

 Those dim hours spent beside the bed of poor Norman opened for me a series of meditations, not only on hospital life and death,