Greater Distensibility Research Articles

Excessive Hydration in an Animal with an Open Type of Circulation

A condition of excessive hydration, with great distension of the body, has been observed in the aquatic crustacean Asellus, and is interesting since (1) the relatively rigid crustacean exoskeleton might have been expected to preclude such a condition, and (2) in the open type of circulation, of Crustacea, there is no barrier corresponding to the capillary wall which, in an animal with closed circulation, plays an important part in the etiology of the œdematous type of excess hydration, that is, distension of the tissue spaces with fluid1.

RENAL CALCULUS.UNUSUAL SIZE, VOLUNTARILY EXPELLED.

<h3>Patient.</h3> —Mrs. A., aged 22, married, with one child 14 months old, is anemic, has had no illness since childhood, but suffers from dysmenorrhea, which she has had since the beginning of menstruation. <h3>History of Illness.</h3> —The latter part of November, 1904, she had a severe attack of cramps, which lasted three or four days, the exact cause or nature of which was not determined. Two weeks previous to the present attack she had a similar attack, severe in character. The present illness began suddenly Jan. 7, 1905, with a sharp, spasmodic, colicky pain in the right side, with nausea and vomiting. January 8, the pain became so excruciating that she fell in collapse. I found her in a condition of profound shock. She was pulseless at the wrist and the heart sounds were very indistinct; temperature, 95.8, skin moist with cold, clammy perspiration; semi-delirious. Three-quarters of a grain of morphin given hypodermically gave very little relief. She was removed to the hospital. <h3>Examination.</h3> —January 9, examination revealed pronounced tympanitis, with tenderness on pressure on right side, extending from the margin of the rib to the right groin; the pain radiated from a point over the right kidney toward the bladder. The point of greatest tenderness and distension was in the region of the right kidney and of the gall bladder. The great distension of the abdomen and the severe pain made a

VII. On the blow-hole of the porpoise

The Porpoise inspires through the blow-hole which includes the nostrils, and is so placed that the animal can breathe with only a very small portion of its head above the water. A large passage leads down from the external opening to two canals that pass directly downwards through the skull, between the cranial and facial bones; these nasal canals are separated from each other by a thin plate of bone (Plate XII. fig. 1.3-26. 27). The two canals, after passing down through the skull, coalesce to form a muscular tube that opens at its lower part into the pharynx, by a constricted aperture. Through this aperture the mouth of the larynx rises, after the larynx itself has projected quite through the pharynx, dividing it into two channels. Connected with the channel that leads from the external opening down to the two bony conduits is a series of pouches; these are composed of aponeurotic walls, folded on themselves in many wrinkles, so as to be capable of great distension.