April 14, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



581 



sistance of the guinea pigs to diphtheria toxin. 

 Irregularities in the routine tests during the 

 past year led the author to look up the geneal- 

 ogy of the pigs used, and he found that the 

 different degrees of resistance belonged to cer- 

 tain families or litters, and were constant for 

 those families. Thus one mother gave birth 

 to young which did not react to what was the 

 usual fatal dose. Four successive litters pos- 

 sessed the same resistance. It appeared prob- 

 able that this family could stand 40 per cent, 

 more toxin, when mixed with the antitoxic 

 unit, than those of average susceptibility. 



It would seem from these and similar ob- 

 servations that different degrees of suscepti- 

 bility to toxin are to be found among guinea 

 pigs and that the special degree possessed by 

 any one is not to be attributed to individual 

 variation, but to a family trait or character. 

 Experiments are now under way to determine 

 the part played by the male in the transmis- 

 sion of toxin-resistance. 



The Protective Action of Venom upon Blood 

 Corpuscles, with demonstrations : Hideyo 

 NoGUCHi. (Presented by Simon Flexner.) 

 That concentrated solutions of venom fail 

 to destroy and tend to preserve blood corpuscles 

 was noted by Mitchell and Stewart. The 

 conclusion which has been reached by the au- 

 thor is that venom unites with the globulins, 

 and especially with the hemoglobin, of the 

 red corpuscles, yielding a water-insoluble com- 

 pound to which the protection is due. Various 

 substances, but only salts, acids and alkalies, 

 restore the hemolyzability of the corpuscles by 

 dissolving the venom-hemoglobin compound. 

 The permeability of the corpuscles is not 

 markedly altered. 



The Results of Attempts to Cultivate Try- 

 panosomes from Frogs: Joseph Lewis and 

 Herbert TJ. Williams. (Presented by 

 Augustus B. Wadsworth.) 

 Examinations of the blood of various lower 

 animals were made at Buffalo, N. Y., in search 

 of parasitic protozoa. The results were nega- 

 tive in dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea-pigs, English 

 sparrows, toads and mud-puppies (Necturus 

 maculatus). In frogs from the Niagara 

 River hematozoa were found quite frequently, 



viz., Trypanosoma, Drepanidium and in one 

 case Filaria. Trypanosoma was seen only in 

 midsummer. 



Attempts were made to cultivate Trypano- 

 soma and Drepanidium, using a modification 

 of the blood-agar medium, proposed by Novy 

 and MacNeal. Trypanosomes from the frog 

 may be cultivated on blood-agar, but, in the 

 experience of the writers, with considerable 

 difficulty. 



From a frog infected with Tr. rotatorium a 

 flagellate organism was cultivated, showing 

 important points of difference from Tr. rota- 

 torium. It is possible that, owing to the 

 technical difficulties of the experiment, some 

 other organism may have found its way into 

 the tubes. This is improbable. 



Undoubted trypanosomes developed in blood- 

 agar prepared from a frog whose blood, during 

 life, showed no trypanosomes, so that they 

 must have been present in very small num- 

 bers or in some unrecognized form. They 

 resembled Tr. rotatorium, but were usually 

 much smaller. As this blood-culture-medium 

 was inoculated with blood from another source 

 containing Drepanidium, it nearly led to the 

 conclusion that Trypanosoma might develop 

 from Drepanidium. We have here an illustra- 

 tion of the ease with which mistakes may occur 

 in the cultivation of hematozoa which are 

 suspected of passing through cycles. Such a 

 possibility had been pointed out in advance 

 by Novy and MacNeal before this society 

 (October, 1904). 



There was no evidence from the experiments 

 to show that development of Drepanidium can 

 occur in blood-agar. 



Experimental Measles: Ludwig Hektoen. 



(Presented by Eugene L. Opie.) 



The results of two experiments on adult 

 men permit the conclusion that the virus of 

 measles is present in the blood of patients 

 with typical measles some time at least during 

 the first thirty hours of the eruption ; further- 

 more that the virus retains its virulence for 

 at least twenty-four hours when such blood is 

 inoculated into ascites-broth and kept at 37° 

 C. This demonstration shows that it is not 

 difficult to obtain the virus of measles un- 



