62 
NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 18, 1913 
events were numerous. On September 1 the 
visitors received in De Harmonie a warm welcome 
from the Dutch physiologists and the Medical 
Association of Groningen. The following even- 
ing there was a reception in the large hall of the 
University buildings by the Queen’s representative 
and the Dutch Government. On Wednesday, at 
the “Sterrebosch”’ Park, the guests enjoyed the 
hospitality of the municipality of the town, and 
on the next day, at the Paterswolder Lake, that 
of the Ex-Senator M. J. KE. Scholten. On Thurs- 
day evening there was also an excellent entertain- 
ment at the theatre and in De Harmonie. On 
the last evening a banquet terminated the congress. 
But the hospitality was not confined to the above- 
mentioned events; many members enjoyed private 
hospitality during their stay, and, as stated by 
Prof. Starling, all the people in the town were so 
cordial that “we felt that we were not merely 
the guests of the physiologists, but of every 
bargee and every tram conductor in the town.” 
There was a special ladies’ committee, and several 
excursions were arranged for the ladies who 
attended the congress. 
To commemorate the occasion of the congress, 
the Dutch medical journal, Nederlandsch Tijd- 
schrift voor Geneeskunde, issued a special number, 
largely devoted to physiological communications, 
and to the history of the development of physio- 
logy in Holland. The same journal also had a 
special medal struck, and duplicates were presented 
to all members of the congress. The medal bore 
the portrait of the famoys Dutch physiologist, 
Donders, executed by the well-known sculptor 
Pier Pander; on the back were the words, “Aan 
de leden van het IX® Intern. Physiologen Congres. 
te Groningen, aangeboden door het Nederlandsche 
Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde September 
MCMXIII.” 
(“Offered to the members of the IXth Inter- 
national Physiological Congress in Groningen, by 
the Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde 
September 1913.”) 
The demonstrations and communications were 
very numerous, and it was not possible for one 
person to see and hear much more than one-third 
of the whole programme, which occupied most of 
the mornings and afternoons. The English physio- 
logists contributed largely to the demonstrations, 
which, as in the meetings of our Physiological 
Society, had precedence over merely oral com- 
munications. The demonstrations of Profs. 
Starling (heart-lung preparation) and Sherrington 
(rhythmic reflex produced by antagonising reflex 
excitation by reflex inhibition) are familiar to 
English physiologists. A demonstration which 
attracted much interest was that of Prof. Abel 
and Dr. Rowntree, of Baltimore; this consisted 
in an apparatus for what may be termed “vivi- 
diffusion,”’ and must be accounted one of the most 
distinct improvements in physiological technique 
which have been seen in recent years. The 
apparatus is called the “artificial glomerulus,” and 
consists of a series of collodion tubes arranged in 
parallel, and surrounded by warm Ringer’s solu- 
NO. 2290, VOL. 92: 
tion; there may be from sixteen to forty-eight 
tubes in the apparatus, and through this system 
blood from a chloralosed sand hirudinised animal 
is led. The blood flows ‘out from. an artery or 
vein (e.g. from the carotid artery, or from one’ 
of the tributaries of the portal vein) through the 
apparatus, and returns again to the circulation 
of the animal by a vein (e.g. the external jugular 
vein or the femoral vein). Such a circulation can 
be carried out under sterile conditions, and may 
be continued for sixteen hours with ease, and in 
favourable circumstances for much longer. At 
intervals the fluid surrounding the collodion 
“glomerulus” is run off and replaced by fresh 
Ringer’s solution. The solution thus run off will 
contain all the diffusible substances of the blood 
other than the saline constituents of Ringer’s 
solution, and on evaporation these may be re- 
covered. In this manner it is possible to detect 
the presence of substances which are only present 
in minute traces in the circulating blood; thyps, 
at the end of sixteen hours considerable amounts 
of amino-acids and of urea can be recovered from 
the dialysate; sugars and a polypeptide substance 
are also present. -It is worthy of note that, as 
regards efficiency, the artificial kidney thus made 
compares very favourably with the animals’ own 
kidneys; thus, when salicylates are given, the 
artificial glomerulus may excrete as much or more 
than the kidneys in a given time. It is hoped that 
a surgical application of this principle will prove 
of value. The applications of the method to the 
study of intermediary metabolism are obvious, and 
interesting results have already been obtained in 
this direction. 
Another interesting demonstration was that of 
Prof. Benjamin Moore and Dr. Webster, who 
showed that when carbon dioxide was passed 
through solutions of such inorganic colloids as 
uranic oxide or ferric oxide in high dilution, in 
presence of sunlight or of light from the mercury 
arc, formaldehyde is formed, and may be detected 
by Schryver’s test. They discussed the relation 
of this phenomenon to the question of the first 
appearance of organic matter on the globe. 
Dr, Carlson, of Chicago, showed that it is easy 
to demonstrate on man the presence of rhythmic 
and of so-called “tetanic” contractions of the 
walls of the stomach during fasting. For this 
purpose two long indiarubber tubes are swallowed 
until their lower ends reach the stomach. One of 
the tubes serves for the introduction of substances 
into the stomach, and the other ends in a thin 
rubber sound which is inflated, and which, when 
connected with a water manometer, serves to 
record the contractions of the stomach. Dr.:Carl- 
son maintains that these contractions give rise to 
the sensation of hunger by stimulation of the 
afferent nerves of the stomach wall, that they are 
initiated by local automatic mechanisms, and that 
they are inhibited by various substances which 
stimulate the nerve endings in the gastric mucosa 
(gastric juice, acids, alcohol, &c.). Prof. Asher, 
of Berne, claimed to have demonstrated the pres- 
ence in the vagus of secretory fibres to the kidneys, 
