Why do the kidneys release renin in patients with congestive heart failure?
I have never yet examined the body of a patient dying of dropsy attended by coagulable urine, in whom some obvious derangement was not discovered in the kidneys…. In all cases, … it has appeared to me that the kidneys has itself acted a more important part, and has been more deranged both functionally and organically than has generally been imagined. Superficially, it might be said that the function of the kidneys is to make urine, but in a more considered view, one can say that the kidneys make the stuff of philosophy itself.
