INFLUENCE OF ROENTGEN RAYS UPON METABOLISM 875 



of the small number of animals in these experiments render the results 

 uncertain. 



Kimura has studied the effects of x-rays on living carcinoma and sar- 

 coma cells in tissue cultures grown in guinea pig plasma to which was 

 added mouse serum diluted with Ringer's solution and found that the 

 outspreading growth was not stopped by the action of the x-rays with 

 a dosage of E 4 to E 12. The mitotic figures were limited to a minimum 

 after an exposure to a dosage of E 8 and after an exposure to E 12 the 

 mitoses disappeared entirely and the tissue so treated produced no tumors 

 when inoculated into mice. The growing power of the sarcoma after 

 exposure to a dose of E 4 was apparently somewhat stimulated and the 

 carcinoma was not appreciably influenced. The process of oxidation of 

 the tissues in both the sarcoma and carcinoma cultures was stimulated 

 by x-ray action of the dosage of E 4 and retarded by exposures to E 12. 



The histological changes in tissue, induced by exposure to radiations 

 of x-rays and radium, have been described in detail by many investigators. 

 They consist of a necrobiosis of the cells, a chronic inflammatory reaction, 

 followed by fibrosis. The changes depend on the intensity of the radia- 

 tion and the type of tissue radiated. 



Effect on the Blood and Blood Forming Organs. The chemical ef- 

 fect of radiations of radium and x-ray upon the blood will be referred 

 to later. Gudzent(<;) has summarized the work prior to 1913. It may be 

 briefly stated that 'the lymphocytes are apparently stimulated to both 

 relative and absolute increase by small doses and reduced in number 

 by large doses of x-rays ; and that the spleen and lymph glands undergo 

 profound change by destruction of the cellular elements as the result of 

 exposure to x-rays and radium. Gudzent and Halberstaedter found 

 in the blood of radium workers striking relative increase in lymphocytes 

 (36 to 63 per cent), in an average of ten cases 40.4 per cent and a relative 

 and absolute decrease in neutrophils, the average number being 50.3 per 

 cent. There was little change in the red blood corpuscles, slight diminu- 

 tion in the white cells, the hemoglobin was lowered in only two cases, 70 

 and 71 per cent respectively. Ordway(c) found a similar though some- 

 what less marked change in a series of clinical workers who showed local 

 occupational injuries due to the handling of radium. 



Millet and Mueller in a study of the blood of ten patients with squam- 

 ous cell carcinoma of the cervix uteri and the vagina, for the immediate and 

 remote effects of radium and x-rays, found an immediate drop in the total 

 white count reaching a maximum in one-half to six hours after applica- 

 tion, and a return to normal within twelve to twenty-four hours. Oc- 

 casionally there was a secondary rise in from 12 hours to 3 days. The 

 polymorphonuclear count followed the total white count. The total lym- 

 phocytes tended to follow the white count but were not constant. There 

 was a tendency for the relative lymphocyte count to drop and the poly- 



