104 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 472. 



Wilson; SHorter Notices of Braunmiihl's' His- 

 tory of Trigonometry ' and of the recent re- 

 print of Carnot's ' Treatise on heat engines ' 

 (1824) ; Notes ; New Publications. 



The January number of the Bulletin eon- 

 tains: Report of the October meeting of the 

 American Mathematical Society, by F. N. 

 Cole ; ' Two systems of subgroups of the 

 quaternary abelian group in the general Galois 

 field,' by L. E. Dickson ; ' The determination 

 of the constants in the problem of the brachis- 

 tochrone,' by Oskar Bolza ; ' On three types 

 of surfaces of the third order regarded as 

 double surfaces of translation,' by A. S. Gale; 

 ' On the generation of finite from infinitesimal 

 transformations — a correction,' by H. B. New- 

 son; Review of Study's Geometry of dynames, 

 by Virgil Snyder; Review of Weber and Well- 

 stein's Encyklopadie der Elementar-Mathe- 

 matik, by D. E. Smith ; Shorter Notices of the 

 mathematical papers of the late George Green, 

 Agnes M. Gierke's problems in Astrophysics, 

 Miiller and Presler's Constructive geometry, 

 and Schilling's Catalogue of mathematical 

 models; Notes; New Publications. 



SOCIETIES AND AGADEMIEB. 



THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 

 MEDICINE. 



The fourth regular meeting of the Society 

 for Experimental Biology and Medicine was 

 held in the demonstration room of the depart- 

 ment of physiology of Columbia University, 

 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, on 

 Wednesday evening, December 16. Dr. S. J. 

 Meltzer presided. 



Reports of original investigations were of- 

 fered as follows: 



The Changes in the Viscosity of the Blood 

 Produced ty Various Experimental Pro- 

 cedures, with Demonstrations :* R. Burton- 

 Opitz. 



Dr. Burton-Opitz described and demon- 

 strated the apparatus used in determining the 

 viscosity of the blood. This demonstration 

 was followed by a discussion of the changes in 

 * The abstracts here given have been prepared 

 by the authors themselves. The secretary has 

 made only a few abbreviations and minor ehanges. 



the molecular friction of the blood after intra- 

 venous injections of distilled water, saline, 

 dextrose and alcoholic solutions. The effect 

 of alcohol, when introduced into the stomach 

 and small intestine, was also noted. Next were 

 considered the changes following subcutaneous 

 administration of curare and the differences 

 in the viscosity of arterial and venous blood. 

 K, the coefficient expressing the viscosity was 

 determined before and after each experimental 

 procedure, two or three determinations being 

 made in each case. 



It was found that, if distilled water, in 

 quantities of from 5 to 50 c.c, is slowly al- 

 lowed to flow into the facial vein, the viscosity 

 of the blood is increased, but the increase is 

 not considerable. The following experiment 

 may serve as a sample. The normal coefficient 

 Ej in a dog weighing 19.2 kilos, was 802.6, or 

 5.8 times greater than K for distilled water at 

 37° C. After the injection of 10 c.c. distilled 

 water the coefficient showed the value Y86.0, or 

 6.0 times greater than distilled water at 

 37° C. Normal saline solutions produce the 

 reverse effect, i. e., the blood becomes less vis- 

 cous. In one case after injecting 10 c.c. of 

 0.7 per cent. NaCl solution, the viscosity of 

 the blood fell from 5.9 to 5.6 times that of 

 distilled water at 37° C. Concentrated solu- 

 tions of dextrose (5 c.c.) injected into the facial 

 vein bring about an increase in the viscosity 

 of the blood which is more pronounced than 

 that produced by distilled water. About half 

 an hour after the injection the coefficient K 

 shows again its normal value. 



If from 3 to 5 c.c. of 10 or 25 per cent, solu- 

 tions of alcohol in water are allowed to flow 

 into the facial vein, the molecular friction of 

 the blood becomes greater. The same result 

 can be obtained by introducing the alcohol 

 directly into the stomach or duodenum. 30 

 c.c. of a 25 per cent, solution were injected 

 into the stomach. The viscosity determined 

 twenty minutes later showed the value 608.09, 

 as against 664.17, the normal coefficient. Thus, 

 instead of being only 7.0 times greater than 

 that of distilled water at 37° C, it changed 

 after the injection to 7.7 times greater. An 

 equally decisive change occurred after inject- 

 ing 40 c.c. of a 25 per cent, solution into the 



