SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS (89)." biliary colic " or spasmodic contractions of the gall bladder.(4) In uterine colic or spasmodic contractions of the uterus.(5) In vesical colic or spasmodic contractions of the urinary bladder. (6) In one case of spastic constipation with powerful tonic spastic contraction of the intestine. (7) In a few cases of pylorospasm. (8) In a large number of cases of arterial spasm or hyper-tension. (9) Lastly, one of the most striking of all the effects, in cases of bronchial spasm or true asthma. Administration of these drugs by injection has also been tried. A complete pharmacological study together with further therapeutic observations on the action of the above benzyl-esters and benzyl-alcohol will be published in due time in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. This preliminary announcement, however, is made in this place because it is deemed that a sufficient number of observations, both pharmacological and clinical, have already been recorded by the author and a number of physicians who have kindly collaborated with him, to indicate that the benzylesters promise to become useful therapeutic agents. (1325) Studies in calcium axid magnesium metabolism. Further observations on the effect of acid and dietary factors.Givens and Mendel' have found that "Administration of hydrochloric acid produced no significant effect upon the balance of N, Ca, and Mg in the dog." Stehle2 has stated that "the administration of hydrochloric acid by mouth to the dog causes an increased excretion of calcium and magnesium as well as of sodium and potassium." Kew experiments have been conducted on two dogs which received a diet poor in lime, consisting of meat, cracker meal, lard, and agar. During two long periods each animal received daily 2 gm. hydrochloric acid. The results with University, New Haven.]Givens, M. H., and hlendel, L.

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TWO FIGURESThe two cases of duplication of the inferior vena cava described below were found in the dissecting room of the Cornell University Medical College at Ithaca.The first case occurred in a colored male, aged forty-seven, who died of general paresis, cadaver no. 466 of the Cornell series.The common iliac veins of both sides are formed in the usual way by the junction of the external and internal iliacs. The right common iliac vein after a course of 4.5 em. is joined not by the whole of the left common iliac but only by a large branch from it, the ramus communicans. The right inferior vena cava thus formed extends for a distance of 11 em. as a large independent stem and is then joined by the left inferior vena cava and then forms the common vena cava and runs superiorly as a single trunk for 2.5 em. when it enters t,he fossa for the vena cava in the liver and continues to the heart. The right common iliac vein begins at the level of the anterior superior iliac spine. It receives the ramus communicans at the superior border of the 5th lumbar vertebra and is joined by the left inferior vena cava at the inferior border of the first lumbar vertebra.The left common iliac vein runs superiorly for a distance of 2 cm. when it divides into two branches of about equal size. The one mentioned above as the ramus communicans passes obliquely across the body of the 5th lumbar vertebra to join the right inferior vena cava. The other branch which represents 475

The experimental scurvy induced in guinea pigs by a special soy bean-milk-yeast-paper pulp-salt diet3 could be prevented by a daily addition of 10 gm. raw cabbage along with the ration. Cabbage cooked for thirty minutes a t 100" C., subsequently incorporated with the rest of the food, and dried a t 65-70" C. for two days lost its antiscorbutic power. Cabbage heated in an oven for two hours a t 75-80" C., then dried at 65-70" C., ground, intimately mixed with the food, and the whole dried further for two days at 65-70' C. exhibited no potency as an antiscorbutic. Cabbage dried in a blast of air a t 40-52" C. retained some of its antiscorbutic value in that it delayed markedly the onset of scorbutic symptoms. Furthermore it could be used as a therapeutic agent when the signs of scurvy were recognized early enough.

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