262 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The conclusion is drawn that the center affected controls the purin metabo- 

 lism as well as that of sugar, and indirectly influences the secretion of nitrogen. 

 Hence, the operation might be correctly designated as uric acid puncture. 



The effect of water ingestion on the fatty changes of the liver in fasting 

 rabbits, M. R. Smirnow {Amer. Jour. Physiol, 32 (1913), No. 6, pp. 309-314).-- 

 This paper, delivered before the Washington meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, May, 1913, describes experiments 

 made with fasting rabbits to some of which no water was given. The author 

 summarizes the changes in the livers as follows : 



" Fasting, unwatered rabbits, from 4 days and upwards, show a decided fatty 

 infiltration of the liver, apparent in gross and microscopically. Fasting, wat- 

 ered rabbits, from 10 days and upwards, may show similar changes in the liver, 

 but the percentage of incidence is very low as compared with that of the 

 unwatered animals. 



" In half the number of fasting, watered rabbits under observation, micro- 

 scopic vacuolation was observed. This vacuolation may be interpreted as a 

 fatty change, but the picture is by no means comparable to that seen in the 

 nonwatered animals." 



The problem of fermentation and putrefaction in the human intestines 

 during the administration of different types of diet as indicated by chemical 

 analysis of the feces, H. Fischeb {Ztschr. Expt. Path. u. Ther.., 14 (1913), No. 

 2, pp. 179-244)- — The studies on which this article is based were made with 

 patients suffering from chronic constipation and receiving special diets, viz, 

 a milk diet, vegetable and fruit diet, diet unusually rich in protein, diet 

 unusually rich in fat, and the so-called Schmidt intestinal test diet (a simple 

 mixed semi-invalid diet). The acidity or alkalinity of the feces was deter- 

 mined and also their content of volatile fatty acids, free and total ammonia, 

 neutral fats, sulphuric acid, amino acids, mercaptan, etc., the hope being thus 

 to throw light on the bacteriological conditions of the intestines as the result 

 of the different diets. 



Among the more significant points in the author's summary is the fact that 

 the milk diet, the fruit and vegetable diet, and those rich in protein or in fat 

 all yielded feces with noticeably high ammonia content. This indicates that the 

 latter is not due simply to the decomposition of protein in the food, but may 

 be caused, as in the case of the fruit and vegetable diet, by the prolonged re- 

 tention of cellulose in the intestines and the increased putrefactive changes 

 therein, or, as in the case of the fat diet, by the stimulation of the pancreas 

 and other glands by the higher fatty acids and soaps and the irritation of the 

 intestinal mucus by the lower fatty acids. 



Calcium and phosphorus in growth at the end of childhood, Hebbst 

 (Ztschr. Einderheilk., Orig., 7 (1913), No. 3-4, pp. 16.1-192; abs. in ZentU. Expt. 

 Med., 4 (1913), No. 10, p. 446).— Ot the 2 subjects (14-year old boys) studied 

 one was strong and the other less well developed. 



Calcium and phosphorus metabolism were determined during long intervals. 

 With the stronger subject there was a calcium oxid retention of 0.4543 gm. per 

 day, equivalent to 165.8 gm. per year. With the less well developed boy the 

 retention was 0.2172 gm. daily, or 79.3 gm. per year. These values are about 

 the same as those calculated on theoretical assumptions. 



Phosphoric acid retention in growth is apparently dependent upon calcium 

 and also upon nitrogen retention. 



Calorimetric observations on man, J. S. Macdonald (Rpt. Brit. Assoc. Adv. 

 8ci., 1912, pp. 286-290). — These experiments were reported by the committee 

 appointed by the Bcitish Association for the Advancement of Science to make 

 calorimetric observations on man in health and in febrile conditions. They 



