80 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



with which the epithelium is involved depends principally upon the nephrotoxic 

 substances employed in producing the nephritis. Uranium nitrate and potas- 

 sium dichromate usually produce a tubular nephritis much earlier than either 

 cantharidin or sodium arsenate. 



" In the early stages of the nephritis from these poisons, when there is 

 anatomical evidence of vascular injury and either slight or no anatomical evi- 

 dence of epithelial injury, the output of urine is increased. Later in the 

 nephritis, when histologically the vascular pathology may not be increased in 

 severity but when the epithelium has become involved, the output of urine is 

 reduced or an anuria is established. Those nephrotoxic substances which have 

 the most marked affinity for the tubular epithelium are the substances which 

 most rapidly cause either a reduced output of urine or an anuria, while those 

 nephrotoxic substances, such as arsenic, which cause an early and a pro- 

 nounced vascular injury, with late epithelial involvement, are the poisons which 

 have the least tendency to produce an anuria. 



" In the experiments detailed in this study which have shown either a pro- 

 nounced decrease in the output; of urine or an anuria, there have constantly 

 been associated epithelial changes, which would produce in different degrees 

 an obstruction of the lumen of the tubules. In those experiments in which the 

 output of urine has not been decreased, and in those experiments in which the 

 output of urine was increased beyond the normal, such epithelial changes 

 either did not exist or they were histologically slight." 



The precipitation reaction for anthrax, Hobstetter {Berlin. Tierdrztl. 

 Wclrnschr., 28 {1912), A'o. 7, iw. 111-1 ID, figs. 2).— The chief difference between 

 Ascoli's test (E. S. R., 26, p. 375) and Pfeiler's reaction lies in the fact that in 

 the first named the precipitating reagent is prepared by heating the suspected 

 material in a boiling water bath for a few minutes with physiological salt 

 solution, and in the latter the material is rubbed up with chloroform and porce- 

 lain sand and extracted with carbolized salt solution. The latter method has 

 the disadvantage of requiring about 7 hours for the preparation of the extract, 

 but with the former the reaction is not so intense. 



The diagnosis of anthrax by the Ascoli reaction, A. Lebre {Arch. R. Inst. 

 Bact. Camara Pesinna, 3 {1912). Xo. 3, pp. 379-397. figs. 7).— This reaction 

 (E. S. R., 26, p. 375) furnished very satisfactory results, even when the material 

 to be tested was putrid. 



Aggressin immunization against symptomatic anthrax, O. W. Schobl (A6s. 

 m Science, n. ser., 35 {1912), No. 893, p. 237). — "Briefly, the results of the 

 experiments are as follows: The existence of aggressin in blackleg edema has 

 been proved, since the sterile edema fluid aids infection by hindering the natural 

 protective apparatus of the organism. Phagocytosis chiefly is inhibited. It is 

 nontoxic even in much larger quantities than the amount necessary to change 

 a sublethal dose of symptomatic anthrax bacilli into the lethal dose. Repeated 

 injections of sterile edema fluid leads to a considerable degree of immunity. 

 The animals are not only immune themselves, but also yield serum that pro- 

 tects normal animals from subsequent infection. Such a serum shows the 

 presence of antibodies demonstrable both in vitro and in vivo, the most striking 

 characteristic being its favorable effect upon the phenomenon of phagocytosis. 



" In the subcutaneous circumscribed infiltration following artificial infec- 

 tion, immunized animals may under certain circumstances harbor virulent 

 symptomatic anthrax bacilli. Therefore, the immunity can not be considered 

 bacteriolytic. The immunity consists of a complete or partial inhibition of 

 the growth of symptomatic anthrax bacilli in the body of the immunized 

 animal. If the immunity is not sufficient to suppress completely the growth of 

 bacilli, they multiply locally and are still able to produce toxin. The difference 



