Pronephros and mesonephros--Cohnheim revisited

Erroneous quotations in the literature and Cohnheim's statement, in his Lectures on General Pathology, that the Wolffian body or mesonephros is the first anlage of the urogenital system prompted this description of the growth of our knowledge of the early development of the kidney. Some of the pertinent older literature is reviewed, and the concept of the holonephros, as opposed to the trinephric view of kidney development, is discussed. Emphasis is placed on the decreasing functional significance of the pronephros with evolutionary development, to the extent that the role of the pronephros in the human is questioned. Cohnheim's seemingly erroneous reference to the development of the kidney is shown to be merely a reflection of the views current at his time.