54 (i 1 8) Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. 



Myriads of these bodies are sometimes visible on the flat corneal 

 cells. They appear to be peculiar cell granules, and are present in 

 normal animals. 



22 (68). " On the tetanic element in bile," with demonstra- 

 tions : S. J. MELTZER and WILLIAM SALANT. 



The toxic effects of bile are manifold, and have been the subject 

 of numerous investigations. The authors referred only to the 

 general effects : coma and convulsions. Of the early investigators 

 of the effects of injection of bile into animals, some observed only 

 coma, others convulsions, and still others stated that they observed 

 both. The last work on this subject, the work which is now fre- 

 quently quoted, was done by Rywosch about fourteen years ago. 

 Rywosch claims that coma is the only effect of the two which the 

 injection of bile or bile salts produces. 



In their extensive series of experiments on frogs the authors 

 established the fact that the injection of bile can produce coma as 

 well as tetanus. Coma is the frequent and the more reliable re- 

 sult. By a certain device, however, they were able to demonstrate 

 the presence of the tetanic element even in bile which infal- 

 libly produced coma ; it was by the addition of a subminimum 

 dose of strychnin. A frog of medium size will not respond, even 

 with the slightest hyperesthesia, to an injection of a hundredth of a 

 milligram of strychnin. When such a small dose, however, is in- 

 jected into a frog which has received a certain quantity of bile, the 

 animal reacts, sooner or later, with a distinct tetanus. The effec- 

 tive dose of bile varies with the animal from which it is obtained. 

 For instance, of ox bile hardly more than 0.3 c.c. need be used, 

 otherwise the coma will completely mask the tetanic element. 

 Rabbit's bile, on the other hand, may be given sometimes even in 

 doses of 2 c.c. or 3 c.c, without supressing any of the tetanic 

 features. The setting in of complete coma usually masks the 

 tetanic element, as already stated. A close observation, however, 

 will reveal in many cases some distinct differences between the 

 coma of animals which received a subminimum dose of strychnin 

 and that of animals which had not received any strychnin. 



The bile of rabbits, which thus far has been more extensively 

 studied than that of other animals, produced in many instances 



