124 Indianapolis Biocheniical Meeting: Abstracts [Sept. 



Solution of the alkaloids than by extracting the minced tissue with 

 acid alcohol. 



Studies of Water Absorption by CoUoids^ 



WILLIAM J. GIES 



{Lahoratory of Biological Chemistry, of Columbia University, at 

 the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. ) 



Fischer's theory regarding the influence of acids in the pro- 

 duction of edema is based upon observations of facts which have 

 been demonstrated repeatedly, but the experimental results do not, 

 in the writer's opinion, justify Fischer's sweeping appHcation of 

 them to the explanation of all pathological edemas.^ Experiments 

 with enucleated eyes ( f rom dogs, rabbits, and chickens, in Solutions 

 of combined acids) similar to those already described,^ failed to 

 yield edematous results, but emphasized the need for experiments 

 on Solutions of biological colloids, such as serum and lymph. 

 Fischer's theory is based upon the results of experiments on solid 

 masses in large excesses of acid Solutions. He has not shown that 

 his experimental conditions are closely analogous to the natural 

 ones in edema. 



Experiments along these and collateral lines are now in 

 progress.^ 



^ These studies are members of a projected series on proteins and their com- 

 bining qualities, which in turn constitutes a section of a comprehensive plan of 

 research on the composition of protoplasm and the nature of the structural and 

 dynamic relationships of cell constitutents and products. These investigations 

 are now in progress in this laboratory, and under the auspices of the George 

 Crocker Special Research Fund. 



' Fischer : Edema : A study of the physiology and the pathology of water 

 absorption by the living organism. Pp. 209. 1910. 



' Goodridge and Gies : Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology 

 and Medicine, 191 1, viii, p. 106. 



* This abstract is made very brief and general because the writer's discussion 

 of Fischer's theory, at the June meeting of the Columbia University Biochemical 

 Association, will be published in the December issue of the Biochemical Bul- 

 letin as a part of a Symposium on edema, and includes all that might be stated 

 here. 



