Organ hardened _in situ_. Fat has been removed from fissures between
lobes.
]
The preceding statements refer to the adult subject, and are based on
investigations made on living subjects, and studies of frozen sections
and material hardened _in situ_. In the young calf the kidneys are
almost symmetrically placed, but as the rumen grows it pushes the left
kidney to the right and backward _pari passu_. It also usually causes
a rotation of the kidney, so that the primary dorsal surface comes to
lie almost in a sagittal plane. Further, the gland is bent so that the
hilus is largely closed up and faces outward (to the right). In very
fat subjects the three-sided appearance of the kidney may be absent,
and about one-third or more may remain to the left of the median
plane, even where the rumen is pretty well filled.
[Illustration: