626 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
Walter Howe and H. Enos Day. Dr. H. D. Paxson, U. of Pa., 
1893, was admitted to membership. Owing to disagreeable 
weather many refrained from attending. 
The papers expeeted from Dr. Joseph Hughes, “ Cases Met 
with in Praetiee,” and “Reports of Cases,” by Dr. John F. 
Ryan,^ were not presented. Onr disappointment was due in 
both instanees to illness of the gentlemen mentioned. Expres¬ 
sions of disappointment and regret were general, as both gen¬ 
tlemen handle their snbjeets in such a scholarly manner that 
much is to be gained from their papers. Matters were mended 
by Dr.^E. A^. MerillaPs response to President Robertson’s call 
for a 7 ^estinie of his paper on the action of eserine, read before 
the U. S. V. M. A., which brought forth a spirited discussion, 
including many other topics, of which the following is a 
synopsis: 
D}\ Merillat :—During the past winter Dr. Reading and 
myself made several experiments on dogs at the McKillip Vet¬ 
erinary College for the purpose of ascertaining the action of 
eserine. Eserine is an alkaloid and is described as a stimulant 
of the muscles of the bowels and, in fact, all muscular tissue. 
Through these experiments, however, we have shown that the 
action of eserine was purely upon the nerve centres and that in¬ 
stead of being a stimulant to the muscular coat of the bowels 
it is no more than a depressant to the nerve centres. Eserine 
depresses or paralyzes the nerves which stop the bowels, the in¬ 
hibitory nerves, and by doing so rapidly empties them. In 
experimenting on horses that have paralyzed bowels we found 
that eserine was not active, but that it will act on the colon 
when there is marked peristalsis. I may also mention the new 
treatment for acute indigestion recommended by Professor Bell. 
Dr. Bell read a paper on acute indigestion at the recent meeting 
of the U. S. V. M. A. that is probably the best ever written on 
the subject.^ His treatment is very simple and consists of the 
administration of large amounts of dry animal charcoal. It is 
well known to the chemist that charcoal will absorb about 400 
times its volume of gas. Therefore a great amount of charcoal, 
say eight or ten ounces, is administered dry, and will rapidly 
absorb any gas in the stomach. Dr. Bell reports great success 
in cases of acute indigestion by such treatment. He emphasizes 
the fact that if you wish to get any benefit from this treatment 
the charcoal must be administered dry, and in combination with 
sodium bicarbonate. You may combine other treatment, as the 
administration of the charcoal does not in any way interfere 
