Homer W. Smith's contribution to renal physiology

Homer Smith was, for three decades, from the 1930s until his death in 1962, one of the leaders in the field of renal physiology. His contributions were many: he played a major role in introducing and popularizing renal clearance methods, introduced non-invasive methods for the measurement of glomerular filtration rate, of renal blood flow and tubular transport capacity, and provided novel insights into the mechanisms of excretion of water and electrolytes. Homer Smith's contributions went far beyond his personal investigations. He was a superb writer of several inspiring textbooks of renal physiology that exerted great and lasting influence on the development of renal physiology. Smith's intellectual insights and ability for critical analysis of data allowed him to create broad concepts that defined the functional properties of glomeruli, tubules and the renal circulation. A distinguishing feature of Homer Smith's career was his close contact and collaboration, over many years, with several clinicians of his alma mater, New York University. For initiating these pathophysiological investigations, he is justly credited to have advanced, in a major way, our understanding of altered renal function in disease. Smith's lasting scientific impact is also reflected by a whole school of investigators that trained with him and who applied his methods, analyses and concepts to the study of renal function all over the world. So great was his influence and preeminence that Robert Pitts, in his excellent tribute to Homer Smith in the Memoirs of the National Academy of Science (1) states that his death brought an end to what might be aptly called the Smithian Era of renal physiology.