trates may be administered subcutaneously, with no bad results. He did not state the doses to which he referred, but he classed the tartrates with the sulfates and the citrates. Post 55 found that Rochelle salt, administered in ordinary doses by mouth to human beings, did not cause albuminuria or cylinduria, or aggravate an existing nephritis.

Connio, 56 in his experiments on dogs and rabbits, showed that the intravenous administration of tartaric acid induced marked albuminuria, nephritis and death. The nephritis produced was essentially glomerular, though the tubules were also involved. Given per os it induced vomiting and finally nephritis and death. 57

Underhill and his coworkers58 have recently added much to our knowledge of the pathological effects of tartrates. In their experiments on rabbits and dogs they found that there is no strict relation between the dose of tartrate and the extent of damage inflicted. Histological study of the affected kidney tissue revealed that it was the epithelium of the convoluted tubules that was mostly involved, and to a less extent the loops of Henle. The glomerulus and the interstitial tissue remained intact. Neither the liver nor the adrenals showed any ill effects of the tartrate administration. The most effective way of administering the tartrates was found to be subcutaneously (in doses of 1.5 to 2.5 gm., to rabbits). Undernutrition increased susceptibility to the influences that caused renal lesions. It was also observed that the kidneys in tartrate nephritis lost the power of excreting urea injected intravenously, but the power of excreting chlorids so administered remained unimpaired.

Dakin59 investigated the coefficient of intestinal absorption of the various tartaric acids. He found that all of the acids were absorbed equally, no selective absorption having been noticed.

In liver perfusion experiments, Ohta found that, upon addition of 6 gm. of either d- or p-tartaric (racemic) acid to the perfusing blood, acetone was formed in the liver. The perfusion of succinic acid was not followed by this result.

Dr. William Salant1 and his coworkers have made a special

and interesting study of the influence of sodium tartrate on the circulation: "Experiments with various concentrations of sodium tartrate were made on dogs. When the tartrate solution was injected into an animal under chloretone anesthesia the following results were obtained: The amplitude of cardiac pulsation, as shown by the Cushny myocardiograph, was decreased even when dilute solutions were employed, the systole being more affected than the diastole. There was also moderate slowing of the heart. Bloodpressure was not affected to any appreciable extent. The volume of the kidney, as shown by the oncometer, was only slightly increased. When ether or morphine anesthesia was used, the cardiac effects were not quite so uniform. In deep ether anesthesia cardiac amplitude and rate, after the injection of sodium tartrate, were the same as under chloretone anesthesia. When anesthesia was lighter, sodium tartrate was without effect on the rate or amplitude in some experiments; in others, the rate was increased by 15-25 percent, amplitude also being distinctly increased. A rise of blood-pressure accompanied injection of sodium tartrate; o.1 to 0.4 gm. per k. producing a rise of 10 to 25 percent. In some experiments bloodpressure rose 40 to 50 percent. Recovery followed invariably. In curarized animals the action of sodium tartrate was more marked; 3-4 c.c. per k. of 2.5 percent sodium tartrate causing a rise of blood-pressure varying between 45 and 200 percent, which was also the case after the injection of 10 percent sodium tartrate sol. Successive injections made at short intervals produced the same effect, thus showing absence of accumulation. When the concentration was increased 20 percent, the action was reversed, and a distinct fall in blood-pressure was observed. The volume of the kidney was markedly increased. This was out of any proportion to the rise of blood-pressure and was very constant. The increase was simultaneous with the rise in blood-pressure, but recovery was much slower. Microscopic examination of the kidneys of rabbits that died as a result of the administration of sodium tartrate showed very marked congestion."

Dr. Salant has also observed, in some of his tartrate experiments, that "when both vagi were cut the blood-pressure rose slightly, while the cardiac action was hardly affected."

Biochemical Laboratory of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital,
Pittsburgh, Pa.

DOCTORATES IN BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY

Conferred by American Universities, 1914-'15

The names of recent recipients of the Ph.D. degree in biochemical science, with the subjects of the dissertations, are arranged below in university groups.

Brown University.-Ralph Gibney Hurlin: Histogenesis and distribution of the connective-tissue pigmentation of the silky fowl. -Benjamin Samuel Levine: Removal of natural impurities of cotton cloth by action of bacteria. -Courtland Sawin Mudge: Effect of sterilization on sugars in culture media. George Hathorn Smith: Parenteral digestion of bacterial protein. -Albert Whitman Sweet: Sanitary survey of the Seekonk River.

Columbia University.-Arthur Donaldson Emmett: Metabolism studies of fatigue, rest and recuperation.-Frederick Grosvenor Goodridge: Biochemical studies of mercaptan.-Edward Gray Griffin: Inosite and pinite, and some of their derivatives. - Mildred Albro Hoge: Influence of temperature on the development of a Mendelian character.-Israel Jacob Kligler: Biochemical studies and differentiation of oral bacteria, with special reference to dental caries.Dora Estelle Neun: Examination of certain methods for the study of proteolytic action.-Percy Withers Punnett: Study of the products of the action of different amylases. -Arthur Percival Tanberg: Experiments on the amylase of Aspergillus oryza.-Arthur Waldorf Spittell Thomas: Influence of certain acids and salts upon the activity of malt amylase.

Cornell University. - Millard Alschuler Klein: Studies in the drying of soils. Leonard Amby Maynard: Fixation of nitrogen by sweet clover. James Kemp Plummer: Effect of oxygen and carbon dioxid on nitrification and ammonification in soils. - William Jacob Robbins: Digestion of starch by Penicillium (Camembertii). -James Kennith Wilson: Physiological studies of Bacillus radicola of soy bean (Sojus max Piper) and of factors influencing nodule production.

Harvard University. Thorne Martin Carpenter: Comparison of methods for determining the respiratory exchange in man.Frederick Simonds Hammett: Uric acid in tissues. Guilford Bevil Reed: Studies in plant oxidases.

Johns Hopkins University. Walter Hatheral Coolidge: Osmotic-pressure measurements of glucose solutions at 10° and 20o.James Eugene Levering Holmes: Difference in chemical behavior of free and combined water, as illustrated by the saponification of esters.-Forman Taylor McLean: Preliminary study of climatic conditions in Maryland, as related to the growth of soy-bean seedlings. Amos Sentman Musselman: Osmotic-pressure measurements of glucose solutions at 30°, 40°, 50° and 60°. -Lyde Stuart Pratt: Esterification of benzoic acid by mercaptans. John Wesley Shive: Study of physiological balance in nutrient media resulting in a simplified culture-solution for plants.

Northwestern University.-Siegel Buckborough: Structure of maltose and its oxidation products with alkaline peroxid of hydrogen. University of California. - Oscar Leo Brauer: Rate of conversion of cinchonin into cinchotoxin. - Richard Morris Holman: Orientation of terrestrial roots, with particular reference to the medium in which they are grown.-Charles Walter Porter: Temperature coefficients and the effects of acids, bases and neutral salts in reaction velocities of the triphenylmethane dyes.

University of Chicago. Joseph Stuart Caldwell: Study of the effects of certain antagonistic solutions upon the growth of Zea mays. Walter Lee Gaines: Contribution to the physiology of lactation.-Edwin Frederick Hirsch: Experimental study of the influence of iodin and iodides on the absorption of granulation tissue and fat-free tubercle bacilli. -Charles Edwin King: Origin of the diastases of blood and lymph.-Julian Herman Lewis: Absorption of substances injected subcutaneously, and the inhibitory action of heterologous protein-mixtures on anaphylaxis. -Agnes Fay Morgan: (I) Viscosities of various methyl and ethyl imido-benzoates, and of the sodium salts of para- and meta-nitrobenzoylchloroamides in moderately concentrated aqueous solutions; (II) Molecular rearrangement of some triaryl methylchloroamines. George Burton Rigg: Decay and soil toxins. Clare Christman Todd: Action of alkaline hydrogen peroxid on d-galactose.