July 15, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



81 



appear in the urine after the administration 

 of pUoridzin. In clironic forms of the dis- 

 ease, when only a trace of albumen can be 

 detected in the urine, and when the permea- 

 bility of the kidney for methylene blue is 

 normal, there is frequently a diminished sugar 

 elimination — diminished as compared with 

 that in health under the influence of phlorid- 

 zin. In no case was there observed an im- 

 paired permeability for methylene blue with 

 a normal sugar elimination, but the contrary 

 was often the case. 



Levene's modification of Allihus's method 

 was used for the sugar determinations. Fur- 

 ther work in this direction is in progress. 



Effect of Blood Serum in Pneumonia upon the 



Heart (Preliminary Report) : Isaac Abler 



and Richard Weil. 



The object of these experiments was to de- 

 termine whether blood serum in pneumonia 

 has a specific effect upon the heart and, also, 

 whether there is any difference in action be- 

 tween the serum taken hefore and the serum 

 obtained after the crisis. The experiments 

 were made upon the heart of the turtle, use 

 of the mammalian heart being impracticable, 

 in this connection, for many reasons. The 

 fluids to be tested entered the heart through 

 a glass cannula introduced through the right 

 aorta into the corresponding ventricle, passed 

 through the septum into the left ventricle and 

 flowed out through a cannula in the left aorta. 

 Care was taken to keep the temperature, con- 

 centration and hydrostatic pressure uniformly 

 constant. The veins were all carefully 

 ligated. The small diaphragmatic vein at 

 the apex was tied and cut, the ligature con- 

 nected with a writing lever, and the contrac- 

 tions of the heart thus recorded upon a drum. 



Normal human serum acts upon the heart 

 of the turtle as a violent inhibitor, but it was 

 found that in a dilution of 1-20, or better still, 

 1-15, it does not diiJer greatly in effect from 

 ' normal saline.' All sera were thereupon 

 tested in dilution of 1-20 or 1-15, and the 

 routine of each experiment as ultimately 

 adopted was as follows : Infusion into the 

 heart, (a) ' normal saline,' (&) normal blood 

 serum, (c) ' normal saline,' (d) serum before 

 crisis, (e) ' nonnal saline,' (f) serum after 



crisis. In this manner after considerable 

 preliminary experimentation very character- 

 istic tracings were obtained. 



Two cases of lobar pneumonia and one case 

 of broncho pneumonia have thus far been 

 studied. The tracings obtained were demon- 

 strated and it appeared from them that the 

 serum in pneumonia before the crisis, at least 

 in the cases tested, acted upon the heart of the 

 turtle as a most violent poison. The contrac- 

 tions at once became extremely weak and slow 

 and the pauses very long. The serum taken 

 after the crisis gave tracings not very ma- 

 terially different from those obtained with 

 normal serum. 



The Influence of Alcohol on Biliary Secretion: 



William Salant. 



In the author's experiments, fasting or well 

 fed dogs were the subjects. Operation and 

 collection were conducted in the usual manner. 

 Ether narcosis was employed in every instance 

 without previous injection of morphine. The 

 rate of secretion was studied by comparing the 

 amounts collected during periods of fifteen 

 minutes. The rate of secretion during the 

 first four or five periods was used as a control, 

 at the end of which time alcohol was injected 

 by means of a burette into the femoral vein. 

 Varying strengths of alcohol were used, four 

 and one half per cent., thirty per cent, and 

 sixty per cent. The quantities administered 

 were usually about 4 c.c. per kilo of body 

 weight. 



After the injection of alcohol it was found 

 in all cases that the secretion of bile con- 

 tinued to diminish, the diminution in the rate 

 of secretion being, however, somewhat greater 

 than in the two or three control periods im- 

 mediately preceding the administration of 

 alcohol. Since the much larger quantity of 

 bile of the first and second periods probably 

 represents bile that has been held back during 

 the operation, it could not be considered as a 

 control. The author, therefore, regarded as 

 a control the rate of secretion during the 

 following two or three periods. Whether this 

 slightly diminished secretion is to be ascribed 

 to the influence of alcohol can only be decided 

 by further comparisons of the rate of secretion 

 in alcoholized and normal animals. Thus, in 



