434 RECORDS 



to a discussion of the much mooted question of fertiHzation in 

 this and kindred groups. The principal methods of spore dis- 

 tribution were outHned. 



Professor Frederic S. Lee said that the duration of the hfe of 

 voluntary muscle in mammals after the death of the individual 

 has not been well known. Under the author's direction, 

 Messrs. Adler and Bulkley have been investigating this in cats 

 and rabbits. In each experiment the animal was killed, a par- 

 ticular muscle was excised and stimulated by electric shocks at 

 five-minute intervals and the resulting contractions were 

 recorded. The muscles used were the solciis (deep red) and the 

 tibialis anticus (pale). Each survived several hours, the maxi- 

 mum for the red muscle being 14 hours and 37 minutes, and 

 for the pale 12 hours and 20 minutes. It is known that in 

 comparison with white muscle-fibers red fibers contain rela- 

 tively more sarcoplasm, which is nutritive in function, and 

 relatively less fibrillar substance, which is the contractile part. 

 This may perhaps account for the longer survival of the red 

 muscle. So far no constant difference in duration has been ob- 

 served between the cat and the rabbit. In both the red and the 

 pale muscle the decrease of irritability was gradual, but occa- 

 sionally in the tibialis there was a sudden fall at the end of 

 about one hour, the irritability then continuing at a low ebb for 

 hours, but with a gradual decline. The sudden fall may have 

 been due to the early death of the white fibers, which, inter- 

 mingled with red ones, occur in the pale muscle. Besides the 

 theoretic interest, the above results have a practical bearing, 

 since they show that mammalian muscle can readily be used 

 for experimental purposes in the physiological laboratories. 

 This is now being done at Columbia University. 



Dr. William J. Gies reported upon the changes which may 

 occur in lymph after the administration of protoplasmic poi- 

 sons. Quinin did not interfere with the usual influence of dex- 

 trose, although it did suppress the action of leech extract. 

 The results with dextrose, therefore, indicate that the increase 

 in the quantity of lymph following its injection in large quan- 

 tity is due mainly to physical factors. In the case of leech ex- 



