fi THE WORK OF THE DIGESTIVE GLANDS. 



The gland undoubtedly remains in a normal condition, but the difficulties 

 of the experimenter have by no means reached an end. In a very short 

 time the abdominal wall becomes macerated by the escaping juice, and in 

 places even fairly large bleeding patches appear. These continuously 

 irritate the animal and prevent the collection of pure juice by means of 

 the funnel. What was to be done ? Many things helped e.g., frequent 

 washing of the macerated skin with water and smearing with emollient 

 ointments. The healing is, however, still better promoted if the dog 

 be retained for several hours every day in its frame, with the 

 funnel tied in position. But the best means of all is to allow the 

 animal constantly to lie, except during the hours of the experiment, 

 upon somo porous material, such as a bed of sawdust or sand or old 

 mortar, ito. Many animals soon discover the best position in which to 

 lie down, so that the escaping juice is at once absorbed by the 

 porous material. In this way the abrasion and maceration of the skin 

 can most readily be avoided. It is interesting to relate that the hint 

 which led to the adoption of this last method was given by one of 

 the animals operated upon. 



I may perhaps take the liberty of giving a fuller account of this 

 interesting case. In one of the dogs the eroding effects of the juice 

 became evident after ten to fifteen days. The treatment employed 

 yielded no good results. At night the dog was tied up in the laboratory, 

 but one morning, to our great annoyance, we found a heap of mortar 

 beside it, torn from the wall. The animal was then chained elsewhere in 

 the room. Next morning the same thing presented itself to our view, and 

 once more a portion of the wall was damaged. At the same time we noticed 

 that the dog's abdomen was dry and that the appearances of cutaneous 

 irritation were considerably reduced. It was only now that we grasped the 

 true meaning of the circumstances. We prepared the animal a bed of 

 sand, after which the wall ceased to be damaged, and the flow of juice no 

 longer gave trouble. We (Dr. Kuwschinski and I) acknowledged with 

 gratitude that the common sense of the animal had helped us as well as 

 itself. It would be a pity if this fact were lost concerning the psychology 

 of the animal world. We thus overcame another difficulty, but our 

 iinal goal was not yet attained. 



Three to four weeks after the operation, the animals, previously 

 well to all appearance, became suddenly ill. Food was almost at oncn 

 refused and a rapidly increasing debility supervened. This condition 

 was accompanied, as a rule, by convulsive symptoms, at times even 

 by violent general cramps, followed, after two or thiee days, by 

 death. Obviously here we had a peculiar form of ailment. Staivation 

 was out of the question, for the animals often died with almost normal 

 body-weight. The idea of any form of post-operative illness, such as 



