284 Fische/ s Theory of Edema [Dec. 



sion colloids for water (salts) and is unaffected by the presence of sub- 

 stances which do not do this (non-electrolytes). (Pages 110-121.) 



3. Any chemical means by which we render possible the abnormal 

 production or accumulation of acids in the tissues is accompanied by an 

 edema, (Pages 12 i-i 26.) 



Edema results from an abnormal production or accumula- 

 tion of acids. In his consideration of the first of these three 

 themes (pp. 99-109) Fischer discusses the general edemas which 

 develop in conjunction with circulatory disturbances (p. 99), 

 anemias (p. 102), inanition (p. 103), fever (p. 104), nephritis (p. 

 105), and post mortem influences (p. 107) ; also local edemas in 

 infarcted areas (p. 107), in gangrenes (p. 108) and from the 

 bites or stings of insects (p. 108). The main lines of his "proof " 

 for his theory of edema causation are indicated by the following 

 selected quotations : 



We will have no difificulty in interpreting the variations in the 

 severity of a local or a general edema due to a circulatory disturbance 

 when we say that every condition that makes for a State of lack of 

 oxygen in the edematous parts, be this through disturbances in the 

 affected parts themselves, or in some distant organ, as the heart, makes 

 for an increase in the severity of the edema. This brings us face to 

 face with the following question : Is every state of lack of oxygen 

 accompanied by an abnormal production or accumulation of acid? for, 

 as already stated, this is what we need and know from our previous 

 experiments to be most potent in increasing the afifinity of the tissue 

 colloids for water. (Page 100.) 



To answer this question we will introduce the striking experi- 

 mental findings of Trasaburo Araki.^ This author has shown that in 

 lack of oxygen, no matter how produced, dogs, rabbits, and frogs 

 excrete lactic acid in their urine in addition to various other abnormal 

 substances. Under ordinary circumstances this lactic acid is not to be 

 f ound in the renal secretions, but let the oxygen supply to these animals be 

 sufficiently interfered with, by any means whatsoever (through confine- 

 ment in a closed box, through carbon monoxide poisoning, or through 

 the injection of curare, morphine, amyl nitrite, or cocaine), and the 

 acid appears. Lest the objection be raised that these remarks may hold 

 for various animals, but need not necessarily be true for human beings, 



'Araki: Zeitschrift für physiologische Chemie, 1891, xv, pp. 335 and 546; 

 ibid., 1894, xix, p. 422 ; see also Hoppe-Seyler, ibid., 1894, xix, p. 476. 



