THE PERITONEAL CAVITY. 333 



A similar experiment was carried out with analogous results 

 on a dog of 20 kilos. Nearly 50 c.c. of lymph were collected 

 without the appearance of any pigment in it being noted. 



The data presented agree closely with those already re- 

 corded by Starling. In every case the characteristic color 

 appeared in the urine before it could be detected in the lymph 

 flowing from the thoracic duct, the interval observed ordi- 

 narily being about ten or twelve minutes. The reverse re- 

 sults obtained by Meltzer with indigo-carmine solutions are 

 briefly tabulated below for comparison.* 



INDIGO-CARMINE EXPERIMENTS OF MELTZER. 



Weight of Amount of Fluid Time of First Appearance of Pigment in 

 Dog. Introduced. Lymph. Urine. 



kilos. c.c. ruin. min. 



28 50 8 26 



500 11 23 



18 50 12 40 



10 50 13 23 



30 60 13 44 



22 76 14 80 



In view of the criticisms of previous investigators, it may be 

 well to point out that the tardy appearance of the pigment in 

 the lymph has not been due to any retarded lymph flow in 

 my experiments; the rate of flow varied ordinarily between 

 1.9 c.c. to 4.4 c.c. in ten minutes. The results are apparently 

 independent of the size of the animal, and the data obtained 

 by collecting the urine from the bladder agree in every respect 

 with those furnished by the ureter method. The amount of 

 colored solution introduced into the peritoneal cavity in my 

 experiments has been relatively small compared with that used 

 by Meltzer; this precaution has seemed desirable in view of 

 the statement that " the absorption of such small amounts cer- 

 tainly afforded a greater similarity with that of the normal 

 lymph than when the large quantities of fluids used by these 

 other writers were employed." f Thus, in their experiments 

 on rabbits, Adler and Meltzer used 1 to 2 c.c. of fluid. 



* Meltzer, Journal of Physiology, 1897, xxii, p. 198. 



t Adler and Meltzer, Journal of Experimental Medicine, 1896, i, p. 484. 



