62 (232) Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. 



corresponds to the distribution of the " light" cells (Hesse) in its 

 medullary tube and is probably not connected with the skin. 

 Specimens of amphioxus tend to collect in the darker parts of an 

 aquarium. They also swim away from a source of light. Am- 

 phioxus is therefore negatively photodynamic and negatively pho- 

 totropic. 



37 (129). " The relation of blood platelets to thrombus for- 

 mation " : J. H. Pratt. 



In the frog, rabbit and dog experimental thrombi three to ten 

 minutes old were studied. In the youngest thrombi there was 

 agglutination of blood platelets or spindle cells and agglutination 

 of erythrocytes without evidence of fibrin formation. The fusing 

 and distortion of the erythrocytes were marked. The erythrocytes 

 were sometimes broken up into small granular masses which sim- 

 ulated blood plates. By the use of a sodium metaphosphate solu- 

 tion it was possible to distinguish the blood platelets from the de- 

 generation products of the erythrocytes. 



38 (130). " Conditions of bacterial activity in the intestine in 

 cases of advanced, apparently primary, anemias " : C. A. 

 HERTER. 



The author reported results of the coordinated studies of 15 

 cases of apparently primary advanced anemias, in ten of which the 

 blood picture was that of pernicious anemia. The studies related 

 to the occurrence of phenol in the urine and in the feces ; of indol 

 in the feces and indican in the urine ; of skatol in the feces ; to the 

 Ehrlich aldehyde reaction of the urine ; to the Ehrlich aldehyde 

 reaction of the feces ; and to the hydrobilirubin reaction of Schmidt. 

 In the case of indol, phenol and skatol, quantitative studies were 

 made. The observations established the fact that in so-called pri- 

 mary, pernicious and allied anemias the indications of excessive 

 putrefactive decomposition are almost regularly pronounced. 

 These changes are associated with definite and characteristic depart- 

 ures in the bacterial activity of the intestinal flora studied in fermen- 

 tation tube experiments. A careful study of the microscopic fecal 

 fields, of the sedimentary fields in fermentation tubes, of the aner- 

 obic plates from the sterilized feces, and of the results of a modifi- 

 cation of Welch's incubation test for the gas-bacillus, indicates that 



