The question made me interested, so I did some Googling. Here are some interesting arguments/quotes I found on the Straight Dope's message board: I was taught, only a few years after it became law, that it was done by the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress as a form of spite or revenge against FDR.
And Nephrotic Syndrome is always accompanied by serious edema which is observable swelling from fluid accumulation in the body. With damaged kidney function, it cannot excretes wastes and extra fluid from the body and a large amount of fluid will pile up in the body, thus leading to swelling.
Kids with too much protein in their urine (pee), sudden weight gain, and swelling in various body parts could have something called nephrotic syndrome. Nephrotic syndrome happens when tiny structures in the kidneys called glomeruli (gluh-MARE-you-lie) stop working properly and let too much protein enter the kidneys. In kids, this is usually due to a kidney condition called minimal change disease that affects the glomeruli. Nephrotic syndrome is more common in boys than girls, especially in kids younger than age 5. Fortunately, most cases (including those caused by minimal change disease) can be effectively treated with medicine.