Scientific Proceedings. 



(215) 45 



movements of the cells. Whether this parallelism is due to a 

 direct or merely to an indirect causal relation cannot at present be 

 determined with certainty. It seems not unlikely that the ame- 

 boid movements, the spreading out of the cells and the dissolution 

 of the granules are caused by certain metabolic changes which are 

 induced in each instance by similar conditions. (The blood-cells 

 of Limulus are a favorable object for demonstrating the effect of me- 

 chanical conditions upon blood cells leading to thrombosis and they 

 can be used to advantage in courses of experimental pathology 

 such as is given by the writer at the University of Pennsylvania.) 



24 (116). "On a course on the pathological physiology of the 

 circulation," with demonstration of instruments, specimens, 

 etc. : W. G. MACCALLUM. 



In general in the teaching of pathology the anatomical altera- 

 tions produced by disease are dwelt upon, and little attention is 

 devoted to the detailed study of the alterations in function pro- 

 duced by these diseases. A course was arranged during the past 

 year at the Johns Hopkins University to cover this ground and 

 half of the new laboratory of experimental medicine was planned 

 to give facilities for this work. 



The aim of the course was to reproduce experimentally such 

 diseased conditions as are seen by the students in the wards of the 

 hospital so that they might be studied with the aid of any or all of 

 the methods at the command of the physiologist and of the pathol- 

 ogist. The study of the anatomical changes which are usually 

 found in such conditions was carried on together with these ex- 

 periments. 



It was planned to attempt the study of only a limited portion 

 of the subject each year, and during the past term the diseases of 

 the circulatory system have occupied the attention of the class. 

 Next year it is intended to study the digestive system in a similar 

 way. 



Only those lesions were produced of which experimental study 

 was certain to be of value — thus in the case of the pericardium, 

 while various infections might have been used to give rise to an 

 exudate, the blood-pressure relations, changes in heart-beat, heart- 

 sounds, etc., were studied during the distention of the pericardium 

 with water. 



