No abstract

and others has directed attentioh to the value of substances containing chlorine in "available" form as germicidal agents in the treatment of infected

and Queen's College, Belfast.) MUCH controv,ersy has arisen within recent years as to the nature of the forerunners of urea in mammals, axnd uric acid in birds. The work of the St Petersburg school on the urea production in mammials based especially upon the effects produced by the von Eck fistula in dogs has met with trenchant criticism by numerous workers, especiallv Munzer and Winterberg(l), Biedl and Winterberg 2), v. Karltreu (8), Filippi (4) and others. Although there is this diversity of opinion with rega.rd to the synthetic mode of origin of urea from ammonium salts in mammals, the work of Minkowski (6) on the allied subject, the synthetic origin of uric acid from ammonium salts in birds, has in the main withstood criticismn. Minkowski's work was so thorouglh that it might seem unnecessary to take up the suibject again, however for many reasons it was deemed advisable to try if possible to furnish more evidence either for or against the synthetic nmode of origin of uric acid in the bird's liver, and also to discover whether the purini source was of any importance in the bird's economy. One reason for re-opening the subject was that the operation employed by Minkowski of complete removal of the liver was of such a severe character and the birds lived for so short a time after the operation that it was difficult to draw conclusions as to the specific function of the liver from them. Then again in order to collect the urine free from faeces, the rectum was tied above the cloaca and this militated against the accuracy of the observations. Also the analytical methods employed were, although regarded as the most accurate at the time, in some cases fallacious.In order to remove some of these objections, attempts were made to affect the formation of uric acid in birds by less severe methods than the removal of the liver in its entirety. Thus in the first place experimnents were performed on ducks and geese with the view of

1. The nerves supplying the distal colon have been divided singly or in combination. 2. The effect of these lesions on the distal colon has been studied by radiograms. The results have been summarised above. 3. The histology of the nerves, before and after section, is described. 4. The hypogastric nerves in the cat are composed solely of fibres descending to the pelvic plexus.