Production of Renal Injury in the White Rat by the Protein of the Diet

In 1919,¹and again in 1923,²one of us (L. H. N.) reported the production of structural damage to the kidneys of rabbits by feeding them diets which contained large amounts of several kinds of protein. These experiments were adversely criticized on four scores: 1. The frequent spontaneous occurrence of renal lesions in the rabbit made it difficult to prove that any given injury was caused by the experimental procedure. 2. The herbivorous rabbit, habituated to a dietary low in protein, was a poor test object if the results are to be transferred to man. 3. The diets were inadequate. 4. The lesions were due to the acidity of the urine. In reply to these criticisms, we began to feed properly constituted diets containing varying amounts and kinds of protein to white rats. During the ensuing interval of four years, a number of investigators have described the state of the