Kidney Weight, Body Size and Renal Function

In 1916, Addis1 introduced the determination of the ratiounder certain standard conditions as a measure ofthe amount of functioning renal tissue. The adequacy of this ratio as measured under the standard conditions for this purpose was demonstrated in a number of ways. It is a reasonable measure of renal function;2the variation in "experimental nephritis" was found3to agree well with the structural changes in the kidneys, and the compensatory renal hypertrophy as measured by the ratio coincided with the anatomic measurements.4Lastly, it was shown5that in rabbits there existed a linear relationship between the magnitude of the ratio and the weight of the kidneys, an observation since confirmed for the rat6and the dog.7Taylor, Drury and Addis5found that in rabbits the kidney weight varied directly in proportion to the body surface and bore a more constant relation to this figure than to any