Chairman's Closing Remarks 317 



Dr. Talbot gave us a practical paper on the tolerance of the body, 

 particularly the developing body, to stresses caused by the adminis- 

 tration of too large and too small amounts of the electrolytes nor- 

 mally present in the body. In dealing with the responses of the body 

 as a whole rather than with the end organ responsible for the 

 restoration of the steady state he was showing us the results of tests 

 which had been discussed before in relation to the kidney. 



Dr. Kennedy summarized and synthesized the information about 

 the effect of over-nutrition, age, and so on, on the kidney, and the 

 points have been thoroughly discussed. Dr. Black gave us a good 

 illustration of the way in which the end organ, again, can break down 

 and thus allow an abnormal steady state to develop, but why and 

 how it breaks down he did not decide. 



Dr. Fejfar gave us a glimpse of some of the interesting work going 

 on in the Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Prague. His 

 subject was congestive heart failure, and he discussed the renal and 

 extrarenal reasons for the retention of water and salt. This con- 

 sideration of the production of an abnormal steady state and the 

 potassium deficiencies which might follow from it gave rise to a 

 discussion which will be fresh in your minds. 



Dr. Card kept the subject of his paper secret till the last moment, 

 but in the end he had to come out with it. He gave us a fascinating 

 description of a patient with severe magnesium deficiency, which as 

 far as I know has never been described before. The results of his 

 metabolic studies made us realize how difficult it would be to repro- 

 duce the state of this patient experimentally, and we certainly know 

 more about the functions of magnesium than we did when I made my 

 opening remarks. 



We could have had more about the body as a whole. We have not 

 heard as much as I should have liked about what maintains the 

 electrolyte make-up of the body. Why is it different at birth, 

 maturity and in old age? What maintains these steady states, 

 which together make up the composition of the body? What causes 

 departures from them, and how are the abnormal ones maintained? 



One could go on asking questions for ever. Let us be satisfied ; we 

 have had a good colloquium. Thank you all for coming to it, and let 

 us all thank the Ciba Foundation for entertaining us so hospitably. 



