PHYSIOLOGY. 



two 



is constantly the case with muscular activity. If 

 the resting position be once more assumed, the 

 pressure soon falls back to its old level. A rise of 

 pressure is produced by muscular labor, while after 

 such exertion the pressure falls to normal far more 

 rapidly than the pulse frequency. The arterial 

 pressure becomes depressed below the normal rest- 

 ing pressure after severe muscular work. The pres- 

 sure in the standing posture is constantly higher 

 in the morning. As no noteworthy acceleration 

 of the pulse accompanies the rise in pressure, it 

 is accounted for as occasioned by the activity of 

 the vasomotor mechanism. This overcompensates 

 for the influence of gravity. In the evening, if the 

 body be fatigued, the conditions are reversed. Not 

 only is the pressure generally the same in the two 

 postures, horizontal and standing, but in the stand- 

 ing posture the pressure is maintained by a consid- 

 erable acceleration of the heart. So far as the au- 

 thor's experience goes, it is only during very 

 excessive fatigue that the pressure becomes lower 

 in healthy individuals in the standing posture. 

 The arterial pressure may be raised 20 milligrammes 

 Hg by plunging into a cold bath. If the subject 

 sits perfectly quiet in the bath the pressure returns 

 to that level which is normal for the resting posi- 

 tion, and this will happen in spite of the fact that 

 the subject may be shivering with cold. In a hot 

 bath the pressure falls hardly below that level 

 which is normal to the resting horizontal position. 

 On rising from a hot bath' the pressure rapidly 

 reaches that height which is normal to the standing 

 position. Thus, although the skin is flushed with 

 blood after the hot bath, perfect compensation for 

 the influence of gravity is brought about by visceral 

 constriction and cardiac accelerations. The influ- 

 ence of meals on the arterial pressure seems to be 

 slight. Tea raises the pressure ; a moderate dose of 

 alcohol may slightly lower it. 



Prof. Charles Livon described to the International 

 Physiological Congress experiments indicating that 

 organic extracts produce effects on the blood tension 

 that vary according to the gland with which the 

 preparation is made. Thus extracts of the supra- 

 renal capsules, the spleen, the pituitary body, the 

 parotid of the sheep, etc., on injection produce in- 

 travenous hypertension, while those made with 

 pancreas, thymus, the liver, the testicle, the ovary, 

 etc., produce hypotension. The author has made 

 further experiments, not yet completed, which in- 

 dicate that modifications of its action upon blood 

 tension are produced in the blood which traverses 

 the several organs ; and that this blood in passing 

 through 'the organ becomes charged with special 

 properties of tension action according to the organ. 



As the results of the examination of certain " small, 

 generally round, colorless granules," which M. F. 

 Mailer, of Vienna, described in 1896 as occurring 

 in the freshly drawn blood from healthy and from 

 diseased persons, Dr. W. R. Stokes and A. Wegefast, 

 of Baltimore, find that " in the blood plasma and 

 serum of man and many of the lower animals there 

 are present varying numbers of granules which 

 resemble the granules of the eosinophilic and neu- 

 trophilic leucocytes in size and appearance. After 

 addition of dilute acids, dilute alcohol, etc., and 

 subjection to body temperature, the granules of the 

 leucocyte assume marked activity, and such treat- 

 ment increases the number of granules present in 

 those fluids. These free granules are almost cer- 

 tainly derived from the granular leucocytes. The 

 filtration of the serum of the dog and rabbit 

 through new Miincke porcelain cylinders removes 

 its normal property of causing the agglutination 

 and cessation of motility of many motile patho- 

 genic bacteria, and of destroying large numbers of 

 these organisms. This property can be partially 



restored by adding a sediment consisting of leu- 

 cocytes, free granules, and blood corpuscles. Since 

 the red blood corpuscles are not gertnicidal (BQch- 

 ner), it follows that the restoration of the bacteri- 

 cidal property is due to the addition of the leu- 

 cocytes and free granules, and that these cells can 

 furnish a germicidal material." The authors sug- 

 gest as a hypothesis, which, however, they are not 

 able to prove, that the bactericidal power of the 

 leucocytes of the blood and of the serum of man and 

 many animals is due to the presence of specific 

 granules, especially the eosinophilic and neutro- 

 philic. They think that the granular leucocytes, 

 when called upon to resist the action of invading 

 bacteria, may give up their granules to the sur- 

 rounding fluids or tissues ; and consider that this 

 theory explains how apparently cell-free fluids can 

 destroy bacteria. 



An albuminous substance which he calls globin 

 has been separated by Dr. F. N. Nichols from 

 hemoglobin, derived from the blood of a horse by 

 a process the principal steps of which include treat- 

 ment with hydrochloric acid, the formation of a 

 watery, alcoholic solution, and precipitation with 

 ammonia. The globin thus obtained differs in be- 

 havior from albumin in that it is precipitated by 

 extremely cautious addition of ammonia, but is 

 redissolved in an excess of the alkali : while if the 

 solution has been previously acidulated with hydro- 

 chloric acid, the addition of ammonia still occasions 

 a precipitate, but the globin is no longer redissolved 

 in an excess of ammonia. Globin quickly under- 

 goes digestion with pepsin and hydrochloric acid, 

 and in the course of four hours is converted into 

 true peptone. When subjected to the action of 

 trypsin it yields leucin but no tyrosin. Its percent- 

 age composition is C 54.97, H 7.20, N 16.89, S 0.42. 

 The ashes contain oxide of iron, probably an impu- 

 rity. From its having been obtained from haemo- 

 globin partly through the agency of hydrochloric 

 acid, the author regards it as a substance pre-exist- 

 ing in the form of a salt or etherlike compound. 

 A third body is also obtained on the breaking up 

 of hemoglobin, which has not, however, hitherto 

 been isolated. In its essential characteristics it 

 resembles histon, but when coagulated by boiling 

 differs from other true products of coagulation in 

 the remarkable facility with which it dissolves in 

 acids ; and, unlike the nucleo-histon of Lilienfeld, 

 it does not inhibit the coagulation of the blood. 

 When injected into a vein it appears in the urine. 

 Dr. Schulz suggests that many cases of albuminuria 

 may depend upon the excretion or elimination of 

 globin. The haemoglobin of the dog gave a globin 

 which in all respects resembles that of the horse, 

 while the haemoglobin of the goose behaves differ- 

 ently. 



In experiments by F. Voit on the behavior of dif- 

 ferent kinds of sugar in man after subcutaneous 

 injection, solutions of mono-, di-, and poly-saccha- 

 rides were used and the urine was examined for the 

 presence of the injected or any other sugar. By 

 using this method of subcutaneous injection, the 

 disturbing influence of digestion was avoided. In 

 the first instance 11.24, in the second 60. and in the 

 third 100 grammes of grape sugar were injected in 

 solutions containing 10 per cent, of the sugar. Only 

 in the third experiment, 2.64 grammes of sugar were 

 excreted by the urine, in the second experiment 

 only traces of it, and in the first none. Similar 

 large quantities of fruit sugar and galactose were 

 disposed of in the body. Among the mono-saccha- 

 rides the non-fermentable sugar sorbinose was tried, 

 with the result that after the subcutaneous injec- 

 tion, 36 per cent, of the quantity administered ap- 

 peared in the urine. Of the pentoses. arabinose, 

 and xylose, about half was disposed of in the body. 



