[=Notice=:—Absence of either kidney, or other abnormalities. Of each kidney, note 1. Form, size, weight, wounds, etc. 2. _Capsule_—thickness; transparency; facility of removal. 3. _Surface of kidney after removal of capsule_—color; smooth or lobulated, size of lobules; puckerings; granulations; cysts, etc. 4. _Substance of kidney_—consistence; flaccidity, etc.; fracture, granular or not? wounds, rupture. 5. _Cut surface_—color of pyramidal and cortical portions; proportion of each; amount of blood exuding from; thickness of cortical portion; color; Malpighian corpuscles; their degree of visibility, color, etc.; appearance of striæ in pyramidal portion, color, etc. 6. _Abnormal growths and deposits_—cysts; fibrinous masses; tubercle; cancer; chalky masses; abscesses, etc. 7. _Pelvis of kidney_—peculiarity of form; contents; fluid, quantity, quality, purulent, etc. _Calculi_—their size, position, etc. _Walls of pelvis_—their thickness; transparency; fistulous openings; wounds, etc. 8. _Ureters_—size, contents, etc. 9. _Microscopic examination_—make section with Valentine knife, from convex border through cortical portion, and from base to apex of cone, parallel with tubules; place on slide and examine with varying powers, from 100 to 500 diameters. _Note condition of tubules_—contents; blood, oily particles, fibrinous, waxy, epithelial or other casts; or denuded of epithelium and empty. _Malpighian tufts_—gorged, ruptured, filled with granular or oily matter, or obliterated. Are crystals of any kind present, as uric acid, oxalate of lime, etc., minute cysts, purulent infiltration, tubercular, cancerous or other deposits?] In the normal state, in the adult, each kidney will be found to be about four inches in length, two inches in breadth, and one inch in thickness, of a firm consistency, and of a deep, red color. The weight of the kidney varies from four ounces to six ounces, being somewhat lighter in the female than in the male. The left kidney is generally somewhat longer, thinner and heavier than the right. The fibrous capsule in which each kidney is enveloped is thin, smooth, and in a state of health is easily removed from the surface of the gland. =Congenital Anomalies.= Although the absence of both kidneys is of rare occurrence, it is not uncommon to find only one. This may occupy its usual position, and differ from the natural kidney only in being larger—the _unsymmetrical_ kidney of Rokitansky. In other cases, we find a more or less complete fusion of the two organs together—the _solitary_ kidney.[30] Either the lower parts of each are connected by a band of renal substance passing across the vertebral column, constituting the horse-shoe kidney; or there is only a single disk-like gland, lying in the median line, and situated much lower down, even as far as the concavity of the sacrum.