AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF OEDEMA 13 



removal of the muscle has been found to be approximately 

 0.445°. In the following pages such a solution will be spoken 

 of as an isotonic Ringer's solution. 



The following experiments show the behavior of muscles 

 of desiccated frogs, when these muscles are immersed in the 

 isotonic Ringer's solution above mentioned. In these experi- 

 ments and all similar ones the writer removed the muscles 

 from the body without injury to the tissues and followed a 

 uniform procedure in drying the muscles with filter-paper 

 before placing them on the balance. The experimental error 

 involved in weighing the gastrocnemius muscle was found to 

 be about 5 milligrams. Since in all of the experiments about 

 to be mentioned the purpose was primarily to observe whether 

 the muscles, when immersed in lymph or in the isotonic 

 Ringer's solution, lost or gained weight continuously through 

 a considerable period of time, weighings carried through two 

 decimal places gave the facts with sufficient accuracy. 



Two healthy normal frogs, originally weighing, respec- 

 tively, 18.38 (A) and 28.7 grams (B), were kept out of water 

 until A showed a loss in body weight amounting to 30 per 

 cent and B a loss in body weight of 32.2 per cent. The four 

 gastrocnemius muscles of these frogs were then carefully 

 removed from the body without injury to the tissues, and 

 each was placed at room temperature in a separate covered 

 dish containing 20 cc. of the isotonic Ringer's solution. The 

 behavior of each desiccated muscle of frogs A and B is shown 

 in table 2, and can be compared with that of two gastrocne- 

 mius muscles similarly taken from a normal healthy frog (C) 

 not desiccated, and immersed in 20 cc. of isotonic Ringer's 

 solution at room temperature (control, table 2). It will be 

 observed that the muscles taken from the desiccated frogs 

 (A and B) gained weight continuously for a considerable 

 period of time, and that in each instance before an equilibrium 

 had been established, the amount of water absorbed was 

 essentially equivalent to that which had been lost by desicca- 

 tion. Other similar experiments in which the frogs had been 

 desiccated to a lesser degree gave essentially the same re- 



