122 E. R. HOSKINS AND M. M. HOSKINS 



was found in the urine, but the color of the bile made it uncer- 

 tain whether or not the toxin was present there. One animal 

 receiving 200 mg. of the toxin in two equal daily doses survived 

 for eighty hours, the others dying in shorter time. Two animals 

 while still living were noticed to have a bloody discharge from 

 the cloaca. Autopsy showed that in all the animals the spiral 

 valve was greatly congested and its mucosa was injured. The 

 stomach and the postvalvular portion of the intestine appeared 

 to be uninjured. 



Microscopical examination. Sections of the various organs 

 of the first three animals described above, were examined 

 microscopically. 



a. Digitiform gland. In all specimens there is considerable 

 congestion and slight cytolysis at the periphery and scattered 

 through the gland, caused either directly by the toxin or by its 

 interference with the blood supply, or from both causes. The 

 injury was not very severe in any case. 



b. Kidney. The kidnej^ in every case is greatly congested, 

 especially in the posterior region. The glomeruli are not very 

 seriously injured in these specimens, but in most of them the 

 capillaries are dilated and the nuclei of the capsule are hyper- 

 chromatic and shrunken. 



Injury to the tubules is confined largely to the secretory 

 tubules of the posterior portion of the gland (figs. 22, 23, 24, 25). 

 In the third animal the changes are most severe, due either to 

 the fact that it received more toxin than the first two animals, or 

 else to postmortem changes, or to both reasons. In the third 

 animal nearly every tubule in the posterior region is degenerated 

 and some have completely disappeared. All three types of 

 degeneration are seen, but the granular type predominates. 

 Both hyperchromatization and hypochromatization of the 

 nuclei are evident. In the former the nucleus gradually shrinks 

 until it finally disappears (fig. 23). In the latter the nucleus 

 absorbs water and swells often to two or three times the original 

 diameter, the chromatin gradually disappearing until the nucleus 

 looks like a ring. In the third specimen almost every nucleus 

 has changed from the normal oval to the spherical shape, and 



