^UY 27, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



829 



Howell, L. B. Mendel, T. H. Morgan, F. G. 

 Novy, W. T. Porter, L. B. Stookey, W. H. 

 Welch. 



Constitutional Amendment. — The following 

 amendment was added to the constitution 

 by -unanimous vote : " Each non-resident mem- 

 ber shall be required to present in person, at 

 least once every two years, a communication 

 containing the results of an experimental in- 

 vestigation, or to send to the president, within 

 that time, such a communication for presenta- 

 tion at a regular meeting of the society." 



Eligihility to Memiership. — Many inquiries 

 regarding admission to membership in the so- 

 ciety have recently been addressed to the sec- 

 retary. It seems desirable to state publicly 

 that only active investigators in biology or 

 medicine are eligible to membership. The 

 constitution of the society provides for au- 

 tomatic forfeiture of memlership by any mem- 

 ber who may cease to be an ' active investi- 

 gator, hy experimental methods, in biology or 

 medicine.' Visitors are welcomed to the 

 meetings. 



Abstracts of reports of original investiga- 

 tions :* 

 On the Secretion of Human Bile: P. A. Le- 



VENE, W. G. MELvm and B. Miohailowski. 



The bile was obtained from a patient with 

 a biliary fistula. The patient had been oper- 

 ated upon for gall stones, and was in com- 

 paratively good health at the time of the 

 experiment. 



Diet and Dosage. "Volume— Total Organic Ash 



241ir3. , Solids, Matter, 



CO. ^. i. !*■ 



Mixed diet 780 1.57 0.76 0.82 



Animal diet 785 1.68 0.60 1.08 



Milk diet 845 1.61 0.56 1.05 



Vegetable diet 835 1.64 0.80 0.84 



Sodium carbonate.... 461 1.62 0.71 0.92 



Hydrochloric acid 461 1.53 1.08 0.45 



Calcium cliloride 687 1.63 0.56 1.08 



Sodium salicylate. ... 642 1.40 0.42 0.9S 



Methylene blue 864 1.58 0.54 1.04 



Attention was directed to (1) the influence 

 of diet on the quantity of bile secreted per 

 twenty-four hours, (2) the permeability of 



* The authors of the reports have furnished the 

 abstracts. The secretary has made only a few ab- 

 breviations and minor alterations in them. 



the biliary ducts for certain substances like 

 methylene blue and sodium, salicylate, (3) the 

 influence of these substances and of some salts 

 and acids on the secretion, and (4) on the 

 nature of the so-called ' bile mucin.' 



The quantities of bile secreted under dif- 

 ferent conditions, together with other data, 

 are briefly summarized above. 



For methylene blue and sodium salicylate 

 the bile ducts proved less permeable than the 

 kidneys. There was observed a marked in- 

 crease in secretion after subcutaneous injec- 

 tions of methylene blue. The ' mucin ' was 

 found to be a phosphorized proteid, but no 

 purin bases could be detected in its molecule. 

 Experiments with Certain Nitrites and their 



Antidotes: Reid Hunt. 



Experiments (carried out in the laboratory 

 of Professor Ehrlich) on the toxicity of a 

 number of nitriles, and the antidotal action 

 of certain sulphur compounds towards them, 

 were described. Most of the nitriles studied 

 are poisonous in virtue of the HON which is 

 split off in the body; in the case of some of 

 the nitriles of the aromatic series and of cer- 

 tain amino nitriles, the molecules themselves 

 seem to be poisonous. Although each of 

 nearly all of the compounds studied is capable 

 of splitting ofE one molecule of HON, it was 

 found that the toxicity of the various com- 

 pounds differed greatly. The toxicity depends 

 in general upon the ease with which the HON 

 is split off; in some cases this seems to bear 

 a relation to the ease with which the residue 

 united to the ON group is oxidized in the 

 body. Benzonitrile, containing the group 

 CjHj, which is oxidized with difficulty in the 

 body, is scarcely more poisonous than phenol. 

 Acetonitrile, also containing a group, CHj, 

 which is oxidized with difficulty, is also but 

 slightly toxic. Propionitrile and f ormaldehyde- 

 cyanhydrin, which contain easily oxidizable 

 groups, C.Hj and CH„OH, are very poisonous. 



The toxicity of the molecules of a few 

 nitriles is greater than that of HON itself, 

 although the latter was the only toxic agent 

 involved. Thus, the molecule of chloralcyan- 

 hydrin, 00l30H(OH)CN, is nearly twice as 

 toxic as that of HON. The probable explana- 

 tion of this is that the chloral residue with 



