The Spleen and Chronic Constipation. 65 



We have tried the action of the Zuelzer extract of the spleen 

 by the Magnus method. This consists in immersion of an excised 

 segment of the intestine from an etherized animal in Ringer's 

 solution through which oxygen is bubbling. The intestine is 

 attached to a heart-lever and the contractions registered. The 

 spleen extract showed a marked action. In another method a 

 balloon was inserted into the small intestine of an etherized animal 

 and the contractions registered by Albrecht's piston recorder. 

 This method also exhibited an increase of contractions in the 

 intestine. But they are not so marked as when a watery filtered 

 infusion of the spleen was used. 



47 (656) 



The sequence of the protozoan fauna of hay infusions. 

 By LORANDE LOSS WOODRUFF. 



[Sheffield Biological Laboratory, Yale University.] 



1. In hay infusions, seeded with representative forms of the 

 chief groups of Protozoa, there is a definite sequence of appearance 

 of the dominant types at the surface of the infusion, i. e., Monad, 

 Colpoda, Hypotrichida, Paramcecium, Vorticella and Amoeba. 



2. The sequence of maximum numbers and of disappearance 

 is identical with that of appearance, except that apparently the 

 position of Amoeba advances successively from the last (sixth) 

 place to the fifth place and then to the fourth place. 



3. A definite sequence of forms is not apparent at the middle 

 or bottom of the infusions. 



4. The middle of the infusions is tenanted chiefly by a free- 

 swimming population brought there by an overcrowding at the 

 top or bottom. 



5. All of the protozoan forms considered (except Amoeba) are 

 chiefly surface dwellers and it is evident that when they pass their 

 greatest development at the surface this maximum is seldom ap- 

 proached again, and their cycle is practically over. 



6. The major rise and fall in numbers at the surface are usually 

 about equally rapid, though the final disappearance of an organism 

 may be long deferred. 



