42 Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. 



that of the sugar. The results of their observations in a general 

 way corroborate the statements made by other writers. In acute 

 parenchymatous Bright's disease, sugar fails to appear in the urine 

 after the administration of phloridzin. In chronic forms of the 

 disease, when only a trace of albumin can be detected in the urine, 

 and when the permeability of the kidney for methylene-blue is 

 normal, there is frequently a diminished sugar elimination — di- 

 minished as compared with that in health under the influence of 

 phloridzin. In no case was there observed an impaired permea- 

 bility for methylene-blue with a normal sugar elimination, but 

 the contrary was often the case. 



Levene's modification of Allihn's method was used for the 

 sugar determinations. Further work in this direction is in 

 progress. 



41. " Effect of blood serum in pneumonia upon the heart," with 

 demonstration of tracings (preliminary report) : ISAAC 

 ADLER and RICHARD WEIL. 



The object of these experiments was to determine whether 

 blood serum in pneumonia has a specific effect upon the heart, 

 and also, whether there is any difference in action between the 

 serum taken before crisis and the serum obtained after it. The 

 experiments were made upon the heart of the turtle, use of the 

 mammalian heart being impracticable, in this connection, for many 

 reasons. The fluids to be tested entered the heart through a glass 

 cannula introduced through the right aorta into the corresponding 

 ventricle, passed through the septum into the left ventricle and 

 flowed out through a cannula in the left aorta. Care was taken to 

 keep the temperature, concentration and hydrostatic pressure uni- 

 formly constant. The veins were all carefully ligated. The small 

 diaphragmatic vein at the apex was tied and cut, the ligature con- 

 nected with a writing lever and the contractions of the heart thus 

 recorded upon a drum. 



Normal human serum acts upon the heart of the turtle as a 

 violent inhibitor, but it was found that in a dilution of I to 20, or, 

 better still, 1 to 15, it does not differ greatly in effect from "normal 

 saline." All sera were thereupon tested in dilution of 1 to 20 

 or 1 to 15, and the routine of each experiment as ultimately 

 adopted was as follows : Infusion into the heart : (a) " normal sa- 



