August 9, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



173 



Transfusion had no beneficial effects on 

 dogs that received lethal doses of the toxin. 

 Exsan^iinated normal dogs, that received 

 blood from dogs treated with excessive doses 

 of toxin, were apparently unaffected. Blood 

 letting, as weU as blood letting followed by 

 transfusion of physiological salt solution, had 

 no effect upon the action of the toxin. 



The Effect on the Normal Dog Heart of Ex- 

 pressed Tissue Juice from Hearts of Dogs 

 Poisoned with Diphtheria Toxin: J. J. E. 

 Macleod and George W. Crile. 

 Expressed juice from hearts of dogs 

 poisoned with diphtheria toxin, caused cardiac 

 paralysis and fibrillation when perfused 

 through hearts of normal dogs. The same 

 result was obtained, however, with similar 

 juice from normal hearts and with aqueous 

 solutions of the ash obtained from such juice. 

 The paralytic result was attributed to the 

 influence of potassium, although the asso- 

 ciated fibrillation requires a different explana- 

 tion. 



Experimental Liver Necrosis: 1. Hexon bases. 



Holmes C. Jackson and Eichard M. 



Peaece. 



Ifi the scattered focal necroses of the livers 

 of dogs and horses the nitrogen precipitable 

 by phosphotungstic acid, after acid hydrol- 

 ysis, formed 11.3 per cent., and in the dif- 

 fused necroses 30 per cent., of the total nitro- 

 gen, as against 15 per cent, for the normal. 

 The necrotic livers that were allowed to 

 undergo autolysis showed approximately the 

 same percentage loss of phosphotungstic-pre- 

 cipitable nitrogen (hexon) as normal livers, 

 despite the extent of the necrosis. In the 

 focal necrosis the average was 28 per cent., in 

 the diffuse necrosis, 21 per cent. 



The Action of Nitric Acid on the Phosphorus 

 of Nucleoproteids and Pararmcleoproteids : 

 A. B. Macalluji. 



Phosphorus is combined in caseinogen in a 

 manner very different from that which obtains 

 in true nucleoproteids. When treated with 

 nitric acid (1.2 sp. gr.) at 35° C. for two 

 weeks, no phosphate is produced. Nucleic 

 acid and true nucleoproteins yield phosphate 



under such conditions. Nitric acid may there- 

 fore be employed to distinguish nucleic acids 

 and the typical nucleoproteids from paranu- 

 cleic compounds. 



Does the Stomach of the Dog contain Free 

 Hydrochloric Acid During Gastric Diges- 

 tion^. Lafayette B. Mendel. 

 Many positive results were obtained. 

 On the Nature of the Process of Fertilization: 

 Jacques Loeb. 



The author's recent experiments have shown 

 that in the purely osmotic method of produ- 

 cing artificial parthenogenesis, we are in real- 

 ity dealing with a combination of two different 

 agencies, one being the increase of the osmotic 

 pressure at a comparatively low concentration 

 of hydroxyl ions, and the other, the hydroxyl 

 ions at a comparatively high concentration. 

 The proof for this statement rests upon the 

 following experimental facts. 



(a) When the concentration of the OH is 

 below a certain limit, namely, 10-°n, even the 

 maximal increase of osmotic pressure fails to 

 cause the formation of larvas from the un- 

 fertilized eggs. 



(b) When the concentration of hydroxyl 

 ions is high, e. g., lO-'n, a very slight increase 

 of the osmotic pressure is able to call forth 

 the formation of larvas. 



(c) The effects of the two agencies can be 

 separated by first putting the eggs for from 

 IJ to 2 hours into a hypertonic solution 

 with a concentration of hydroxyl ions between 

 10^' and IQ-'n, and afterwards transferring 

 them for some time to an isotonic solution 

 with a concentration of hydroxyl ions of about 

 2 or 4 X 10"'ra. While no egg that has been 

 exposed to the hypertonic solution will de- 

 velop, many or possibly the majority of the 

 eggs that have in addition been exj)osed to 

 the hyperalkaline solution will develop into 

 larvas, many of which are perfectly normal 

 and rise to the surface. Eggs which develop 

 into larvas very often (possibly always) have 

 a membrane which, however, differs from the 

 fatty acid membrane or the fertilization 

 membrane in this, that it is not separated by 

 so wide a space from the protoplasm and 

 therefore easily escapes detection. 



