ABSTRACT
Filtration is accomplished in the glomerulus, a structure of capillary loops inside an epithelial capsule. e glomerulus was rst described by Marcello Malpighi in the 17th century as a “gland” in the cortical part of the kidney, along with many tubules.1 Given the kidney’s obvious function in producing urine, great controversy raged subsequently regarding whether the glomeruli and tubules were connected. In 1842, William Bowman denitively described such a connection and suggested that the malpighian body was
“calculated to favor the escape of water from the blood.”2 Shortly thereaer, Carl Ludwig proposed that hydrostatic pressure is a critical determinant of the passage of water from the glomerular capillary into the urine.2 us, the basic elements of glomerular ltration were drawn conceptually from the renal anatomy.
