290 



Dr. G. E. C. Wood. A Method for [Feb. 27,. 



Note added March 9. 



Since the above was communicated to the Society we have made, 

 at the suggestion of Mr. Langley, some further experiments upon the 

 action of nicotine, employing cats instead of dogs (since in his 

 experience the action of nicotine upon dogs is much more uncertain 

 and difficult of interpretation). We find that in the cat a small dose 

 of nicotine (1 to 3 milligrams) temporarily abolishes the effect of 

 stimulating the nerve-roots, whilst only slightly diminishing the effect 

 of stimulating the splanchnics ; this being the same result as that 

 above described upon the dog. On the other hand, a large dose of 

 nicotine (10 to 12 milligrams) entirely abolishes the effects of stimu- 

 lating both the nerve-roots and the splanchnics, whilst the nerves 

 which pass to the spleen along with its blood-vessels are still freely 

 excitable. It is clear, therefore, from the last result that large doses 

 of nicotine cause a complete block between the splanchnics and the 

 splenic nerves, i.e., in the semilunar ganglion ; so that there is, in all 

 probability, a cell station in this ganglion for all the splenic fibres. 

 On the other hand, as we have seen above, a block is apparently 

 produced by small doses of nicotine between the nerve-roots and 

 the splanchnics, i.e., in the ganglia of the chain. Whether this is 

 really due, as we have suggested in the text, to the existence of 

 another cell-connection in these ganglia, or whether, as Mr. Langley 

 has suggested to us, it is capable of another interpretation is a ques- 

 tion which we propose to reserve for a detailed communication of our 

 experiments in the 'Journal of Physiology,' and we will also defer 

 until that communication reference to a paper by Bulgak on the in- 

 nervation of the spleen, which appeared in Yirchow's 'Archiv,'' 

 vol. 69, 1877, and which had escaped our attention. 



II. " A Method for rapidly producing Diphtheria Antitoxines.. 

 Preliminary Note."* By G. E. Cartwright Wood, M.D.* 

 B.Sc. Communicated by Dr. Pye-Smith, F.R.S. Received 

 February 20, 1896. 



The method for producing antitoxines, described in this preliminary 

 communication, is the outcome of an investigation into the action of 

 the products of the diphtheria bacillus on which I have been engaged 



* The investigation has been carried out in the laboratories of the Royal College- 

 of Physicians and Surgeons, and I should like here to express my great indebtedness 

 to the Laboratories Co-nmittee for the facilities there afforded to me. I must also< 

 thank them and, through them, the Honourable Goldsmiths' Company, from whose- 

 Research Fund a grant was placed at my disposal. 



