TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 1075 
at the bottom. A sufficient quantity was thus obtained to extract the colouring 
matter by alcohol in suitable quantities for examination, the result being the 
separation out of chlorophyll with smaller quantities of xanthophyll, as the author 
has done in the case of Euglena. 
SuprpLpMenTARY Mertinc.—PHYSIOLOGY. 
1. On the Action of Atropine on the Secretion of the Kidney ; its Evidence 
as to the Mechanism of the Secretion. By J. McGrecor-Rosertson, 
M.A., M.B. 
The author stated that he employed atropine because of an idea that its action 
might aid in distinguishing between different parts of the process of secretion 
in the kidney. 
Assuming the filtration theory regarding the nature of the process in the 
glomerular tufts, and having regard to the elaborate researches of Wilibald 
Schmidt of Voigtland on filtration, the author did not see any good reason for 
asserting that albumen did not filter through the glomerular walls into the tubules. 
If albumen was filtered through, what became of it, was the question. It was a 
reasonable view that it might be reabsorbed by the renal epithelium. In connection 
with this view, the author was struck with the statement that atropine had no such 
effect on the urinary secretion as it had on the salivary secretion. It was known 
that atropine abolished the salivary secretion by paralysing the salivary cells, and 
that it abolished the secretion of sweat, probably by a similar action, If atropine 
acted at all on the secretion of the kidney, it might be supposed to act in a similar 
way by paralysing the renal cells. If the view that these cells reabsorbed the 
albumen were correct, paralysis would cause the appearance of albumen in the 
urine. It was these considerations that led the author to undertake the experi- 
ments. The experiments had not as yet answered the question regarding albumen. 
‘The results obtained, following the injection of atropine, were :-— 
1. A fall in the production of water, and 
2. A rise in the production of urea. 
At a later stage, when the animal was recovering from the effects of the drug, 
there were :— 
1. A rise in the production of water : 
2. A fall in the production of urea, and there was also a suspicion of albumen, 
but on this last the author did not wish, at the present stage of the inquiry, to lay 
stress, 
The experiments seemed to show clearly that the process by which water was 
separated was different from the process by which urea was separated, since 
invariably the quantity of the former fell when that of the latter rose. 
The author did not wish to commit himself to any theoretical explanation, but 
he pointed out that, accepting Heidenhain’s view regarding the separation of urea 
by the renal cells, the atropine might stimulate the cells, thus causing increased 
separation of urea and increased absorption of water, and that some degree of 
exhaustion following the stimulation would account for the fall in the separation of 
urea and the rise in the quantity of water, less of it being reabsorbed by the 
partially exhausted cells. 
2. On a Chemical Difference between Living and Dead Protoplasm. 
By Oscar Lorw, Ph.D. 
Tt has been long since a question why the manifold chemical changes going on 
in a living cell of a plant or an animal suddenly cease with the death of the cell. 
None of the hypotheses offered proved to be satisfactory. The living cell is 
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