When we consider the rather superficial location of the kidney, its importance and the various pathologic changes to which it is liable, it is strange that for so long a time it eluded careful examination and escaped the surgeon's knife. In the past five years, however, the surgeon has made determined, successful efforts to make good that deficit.
Fat necrosis in the tissues of the body is neither a new process nor a new discovery. It has long been recognized in the several tissues of the human body, notably in the abdomen, in the abdominal walls, in the subperitoneal fat, in omental structure and in the pancreas. For a long time it was supposed to be due to some form of pancreatic disease, but it is now well known to occur independently of any affection of that organ. The accepted physiologic view is that fat may be formed in both