112 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. in. No. 56. 



to fasting rabbits of small doses (1-2 grms.) 

 of phloridzin at frequent intervals (8-12 

 hours) sugar appeared in large quantity in 

 the urine of the first twenty-four hours, • 

 representing a proportion of dextrose to 

 nitrogen in the urine as high as 5.4 is to 1, 

 or D: N:: 5.4:1. In the urine of the second 

 twenty-four hours the relation, however, 

 approximated that found by Minkowski in 

 fasting dogs after extirpation of the pancreas 

 i. e., D:N:: 2.8:1. The action of phloridzin 

 in fasting rabbits is to sweep the organiza- 

 tion free from sugar, and thereafter to re- 

 move such sugar as may be formed from 

 proteid. Calculation shows that the 45.08 

 grms. of dextrose produced from the oxida- 

 tion of 100 grms. of proteid in tissue meta- 

 bolism contain 44.4% of the available 

 energy in the proteid (using Riibner's esti- 

 mate that 1 grm. of proteid yields 4000 Cal. 

 in the body.) 



6. W. T. PoETEE : Further researches on 



the coronary arteries. 



The frequency with which arrest follows 

 closure of one of the large coronary branches 

 depends on the size of the artery ligated 

 and on the irritability of the heart at the 

 time the ligation is made. The consequences 

 of closing a sufficiently large bi'anch are a 

 fall of the intracardiac pressure during 

 systole, a rise during diastole, a fall in the 

 quantity of blood discharged from the left 

 ventricle, and finally arrest with fibrillaiy 

 contractions. These consequences are not 

 the result of the mechanical injury done 

 the heart in the operation of ligation. 

 Severe crashing of the cardiac tissue near 

 the coronary arteries rarely produces the 

 phenomena in question. Nor were they 

 once seen in nearly one hundred prepara- 

 tions of the arteries for ligation. Further, 

 the phenomena described can all be pro- 

 duced by closure of the coronary arteries 

 without mechanical injury. This may be 

 accomplished by plugging the mouth of the 



left coronai'y artery with a glass rod passed 

 into the aorta through the subclavian or 

 innominate arteries. It can also be done by 

 closing the arch of the aorta for a few 

 seconds, injecting into the aorta at the 

 same time a quantity of lycopodium mixed 

 with defibrinated blood. The lycopodium 

 enters the coronary arteries and closes their 

 smaller branches by embolism. The changes 

 in intracardiac pressure and the arrest with 

 fibrillary contractions are therefore not due 

 to mechanical injury of the heart. They 

 must then be a consequence of the sudden 

 ansemia of the heart muscle caused by clos- 

 ing the arteries that supply it. There is 

 no fundamental difference between the un- 

 coordinated contractions seen in the heart 

 after its arrest from hemmorrhage, as after 

 opening the large arteries, and the fibrillary 

 contractions brought on by closure of a 

 coronary artery. 



7. G. N. Stewaet : Note on the quantity 

 of blood in the lesser circulation. 



8. C. F. Hodge : Histological characters 

 of lymph as distinguished from protoplasm. 

 The ordinary histological analysis of an 



organ includes the cells characteristic of it, 

 the connective tissue supporting structures, 

 its blood vessels and lymphatics, and its ner- 

 vous supply. In addition to the above, lymph 

 is continually streaming through the cells 

 and between them. We know that this 

 lymph contains large quantities of proteid 

 matter in solution which is precipitated by 

 the ordinary reagents used in hardening 

 tissues for microscopical purposes. If this 

 precipitate is wholly inert toward staining 

 reagents, we are not even then justified 

 in leaving it out of our histological analysis, 

 since many structures of the greatest im- 

 portance are ' achromatic' If lymph pre- 

 cipitate or coagulum does stain, it is clearly 

 of importance to determine what form it 

 takes in the section, granular, reticular or 

 alveolar. 



