452 Water Absorption by Protoplasm [Mar. 



with similar results and have conducted additional experiments with 

 fibrin and other colloids. After their treatment with 0.05 to 0.2 per 

 Cent, hydrochloric acid Solution to effect their maximum absorption 

 of water, enucleated eyes and fibrin masses were immersed in com- 

 bined acid sokitions (Witte peptone in 0.2 to 2.0 per cent. hydrochloric 

 acid Solution) where they promptly lost all the water they had pre- 

 viously absorbed from the free acid Solution and soon returned to the 

 original dimensions. (Pages 307-309.) 



I have answered these criticisms before and simply repeat here.^ 

 "F. G. Goodridge and William J. Gies [Proc. Sog. Exp. Biol. and 

 Med., 8, 106 (1911)], while apparently accepting the teaching that 

 the colloids of thetissues are responsible for the amount of water held 

 by them, have taken exception to my assertion that an abnormal 

 production er accumulation of acid in the tissues of the body plays 

 an important, if not the chief, röle in the production of edema, in 

 that these increase the power of certain of the tissue colloids to 

 absorb water. While it would not at all surprise me to have it shown 

 that some other or some series of other changes in the body tissues 

 than an abnormal production or accumulation of acid is responsible 

 for the increased hydration of the colloids here, which is the char- 

 acteristic feature of edema, the experiments of Goodridge and Gies 

 do not do this. These authors base their criticism on the fact that 

 fibrin threads suspended in such colloidal Solutions as gelatin, pep- 

 tone Solution, tgg white, blood, milk and meat juice, do not swell 

 visibly on the addition of acid to these Solutions, until this is added 

 up to the point where it is " free " in the Solution. When these 

 authors add acid to the colloidal Solutions in which they immerse 

 their fibrin threads they increase the hydration by this means, not 

 of the fibrin threads, but of the colloidal Solution (they give this 

 the 'edema'), as they would find if they measured its viscosity. 

 Up to a certain point (maximum hydration under the influence of 



periments with enucleated eyes (from dogs, rabbits and chickens, in Solutions 

 of combined acids) . . . 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 experi- 

 mental conditions are closely analogous to the natural ones in edema." (Page 

 308.) 



'Fischer: Nephritis, p. 184. (New York, 1912.) 



