170 



Scientific Proceedings (54). 



In that type of chronic nephritis characterized by marked 

 albuminuria, cylindruria and edema, there were similar findings. 

 In that type of chronic nephritis associated with hypertension, the 

 non-protein nitrogen was increased, ranging from 40 to 181 milli- 

 grams per 100 c.c, and the percentage of the ammonia-urea 

 fraction was usually higher than in non-nephritic cases. The 

 nitrogen values in these patients were subject to rapid fluctuations 

 in the course of a few days and clinical improvement was associated 

 with a fall in the non-protein nitrogen content. Uremia was 

 almost always accompanied by some increase of the non-protein 

 nitrogen in the blood but no constant relation could be established 

 between the degree of the increase and the tendency to uremia. 



We believe that this method of estimating the total non-protein 

 nitrogen in the blood is a valuable aid in the clinical study of 

 nephritis and that it can be carried out in any thoroughly equipped 

 clinical laboratory. The error of the method is indicated by the 

 duplicate analyses which were done in almost all cases and which 

 showed an average discrepancy between duplicates of 1.6 milli- 

 grams per 100 c.c. of blood. The urea method was in our hands 

 less reliable, and large and inexplicable discrepancies occurred at 

 times in our urea duplicates rendering repetition necessary and 

 causing us to attach less importance to the urea figures. 



107 (803) 



The toxicity of sodium tartrate with special reference to diet and 



tolerance. 



By W. Salant and C. S. Smith. 



[From the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, Washington, D. C] 



The toxicity of the sodium salts of dextro and levo tartaric acid 

 was tested in experiments on frogs and rabbits. Both isomers were 

 found equally toxic in these animals thus contradicting the earlier 

 work of Chabrie 1 on the subject, who claimed that levo was more 

 than twice as toxic as dextro tartaric acid. In experiments on rab- 

 bits, diet proved to be an important factor in the determination of 

 resistance to this substance. Animals which were fed oats or oats 



1 Compt. Rend. Acad. Sc., 1893, Vol. 116, p. 1410. 



