62 



Scientific Proceedings (63). 



tracings. Further observations indicate that this type of pulse 

 is common in fever patients and that it is rarely marked in normal 

 individuals. It is the type of pulse that has frequently been 

 described as bounding, poorly sustained, pointed, etc. — terms 

 which refer to the sudden fall of pressure immediately after the 

 primary pulse wave. 



This type of pulse as it occurs in febrile patients may be con- 

 verted into a normal form by therapeutic doses of a pituitary 

 preparation. 1 Following such an injection the pulse form usually 

 showed a definite change in from ten to fifteen minutes, the maxi- 

 mum effect was reached in about an hour, and the effect did not 

 pass off for two or three hours. The degree of change varied in 

 different patients. Frequently it was so marked that not a trace 

 of the original backfiow remained and the pointed character of 

 the volume pulse from the arm was entirely lost. Thus far we 

 have not been able to determine any fixed relation between the 

 change in pulse form and changes in the systolic blood pressure or 

 changes in the rate of blood flow throughout the arm. The change 

 in form however was regularly accompanied by a diminution in 

 the size of the volume pulse in the arm. These changes may be 

 explained by assuming a constriction of the larger arteries in the 

 arm or a constriction of vascular areas elsewhere in the body, 

 particularly in the head and splanchnic region. The pulse changes 

 produced by therapeutic doses of pituitary substance are precisely 

 opposite to those which usually follow a therapeutic dose of 

 nitroglycerin. 



41 (973) 



The effect of carbon dioxide on the eggs of Ascaris. 

 By Theophilus S. Painter (by invitation). 



[From the Osborn Zoological Laboratory, Yale University.] 



The undivided eggs of Ascaris megalocephala (var. bivalens) 

 were kept in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide for three months. 

 On the removal of the eggs from the gas, a few smears were allowed 

 to undergo full development. Only about one third of the embryo, 



1 i l /2 c.c. of Parke, Davis, and Co.'s pituitrin were injected intramuscularly. 



