116 E. R. HOSKINS AND M. M. HOSKINS 



3. Four adults were injected intravenously with 100 nig. 

 per kg. body weight of potassium chromate in dilute solution, 

 to study the effect of sudden intoxication. Everj'- one of the 

 four died in a short time, varying from a few minutes to three 

 hours, although they received much less toxin than is necessary to 

 kill them if it were injected intramuscularly and slowly absorbed. 

 In each of them at autopsy the blood was brown and 'granular' 

 in appearance, showing that the erythrocytes had been destroyed 

 and the haemoglobin oxidized by the chromate, which is a com- 

 monly used oxidizing reagent. 



Microscopical examination, a. Digitiform gland. This or- 

 gan in animal '1' is severely congested (fig. 10), but there is 

 no great increase in the relative number of leucocytes. The 

 central venous sinuses are greatly distended with blood. At^ 

 the periphery most of the tubules have undergone vacuolar 

 (hydropic) degeneration (figs. 11, 12, 13), which in some places 

 is complete. Here the epithelial cells are cytolysed and the 

 nuclei shrunken and darkly stained and in some cases are 

 pyknotic. A few nuclei, on the other hand, are swollen and 

 hypochromatic. 



The area of extreme degeneration is about one-twelfth as wide 

 as the radius of the gland. In a narrow strip, internal to this 

 area, there is a gtadual transition to normal condition, the cells 

 exhibiting varying degrees of cytolysis and pyknosis or karyol- 

 ysis. Scattered through the remainder of the gland are indi- 

 vidual tubules showing mild cellular degeneration. It should 

 be noted that in normal animals a few cells occasionally are 

 degenerate, probably from cell inanition, (a term applied by 

 Jackson ('16) in a study of the thyroid). 



Cellular debris containing degenerated nuclei may be seen in 

 some tubules and in the central lumen of the gland. 



The erythrocytes in the digitiform artery appear normal, but 

 in the central sinuses all appear granular and some are com- 

 pletely broken down. 



2. The digitiform gland in the second animal was not injured 

 by the potassium chromate. 



