i6 (186) Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. 



been fed for a few days, were markedly resistant to acetonitril ; 

 such mice recovered from the effects of ten to eleven times the ordi- 

 narily fatal dose of acetonitril. No such increased resistance to 

 hydrocyanic acid or nitroprussiate of soda was caused by the thy- 

 roid feeding. Thyroidectin had an effect opposite to that of the 

 thyroid, i. e. y it increased the susceptibility of mice to acetonitril, 

 but this effect was not greater than that of dry normal blood and 

 was less than that of peptone. Feeding with parathyroids had an 

 effect opposite to that of thyroid, i. e., it caused the mice to 

 become more susceptible to acetonitril ; the effect, however, was 

 much less marked than that of the thyroid. Potassium iodid in- 

 creased the resistance of mice to acetonitril, but the extent of this 

 action was not at all comparable with that of thyroid. 



In other experiments it was found that a protein diet (ham and 

 cheese) caused an increased susceptibility of mice to acetonitril ; a 

 carbohydrate diet (rice and dextrose) increased the resistance to 

 this poison. As a rule it required about four times as large a dose 

 to kill the animals that were fed on a carbohydrate diet as it did 

 to kill those fed on a protein diet. Animals kept on a very limited 

 diet also showed a marked resistance to acetonitril ; in most of such 

 experiments it required about three times as much acetonitril to 

 kill as was necessary to accomplish the same result on animals 

 which had been kept on a normal diet. 



The experiments are being continued. 



4 (96). "A case of spirochetal infection in man," with micro- 

 scopical demonstrations : CHARLES NORRIS. 



The author's object in presenting this case was to give the 

 members of the society an opportunity of seeing spirochetas under 

 the microscope. He did not discuss the clinical history of the 

 case, which occurred in the service of Dr. Carlisle, of Bellevue 

 Hospital. 



In July, of this year (1905), the patient shipped as an assistant 

 steward on the steamship Denver, of the Mallory line ; he stayed five 

 days in Galveston, sleeping on board, and returned on the same 

 steamer to New York. Two days later he was taken with a chill, 

 accompanied by fever, prostration, and pains in the bones. On ad- 

 mission he had a temperature of 102.4 0 . The fever continued for 



