ABSTRACTS 631

individuals were long distance swimmers or runners [as were cases previously

reported by him]. The hypertrophy was greatest in the right ventricle. Three

of the nine athletes had hearts at the upper limits of normal, and these the author considers as “powerful” hearts.

L. N. K.

IDicker, E. : The Presence of a Prolanlike Substance in the Urine of Patients With Essential Hypertension. Compt. rend. Sot. de biol. 124: 303, 1937.

Samples of urine of twenty patients with hypertension and of twenty normal

individuals (ten old, ten young) were, after proper preparation, injected into

young impuberal virgin mice, The mice were then killed and examined. The

uteri, tubes, and ovaries of those mice which were inje’eted with urine from

hypertensive patients showed, in most instances, well-marked hypertrophy. The

injection of normal urine was not followed by hypertrophy. The urine from

twelve of the twenty hypertensive patients whose blood pressure was constantly

and markedly elevated was in each instance followed by hypertrophy but in

eight, whose pressure was labile (maximal 230, minimal 100 mm. Hg) hypertrophy

was inconstantly present and not so marked in degree.

The reaction in the mice suggested the presence of a prolanlike substance, and the author admits this finding as evidence of stimulation of the diencephalic or

mesencephalic centers in hypertensive individuals. He c’oncludes that the ob-

servation reenforees the hypothesis that essential hypertension is of central

nervous origin.

J. M. S.

Barto, A., and Lanari, A.: The Action of Acetylcholine Injected Intraarterially Into Sympathectomized Subjects. Compt. rend. Sac. de biol. 124: 386, 1937.

This short note states that a few days after sympatheetomy, reaction to the

intraarterial injection of acetylcholine is normal; increase in vascular oscilla-

tions, pain, redness, and sweating occur. A few months a,fterward the reaction may, however, differ considerably. In a certain number of cases decrease in the amplitude of oscillations, i.e., vasoconstrietion, no sweating and only a faint red-

ness are observed, and in the same individual this reaction is subsequently re-

producible. Sweating is, therefore, believed to depend upon the integrity of the

sympathetic nervous system. Although the authors do not mention the fact, it

seems likely that the failure of intraarterial injections of aeetylcholine to give

rise to marked vasodilatation in sympatheetomized individuals might depend

upon the development of sensitivity to adrenalin which is thought to be liberated

in response to injections of acetylcholine.

J. M. S.

Bruck, H.: The Action of Histamine Upon the Blood Vessels of the Brain. Klin.

Wchnschr. 16: 236, 1937.

The observations recorded were made possible by a persistent opening in the

temporal bone of a patient with fracture of the skull and hemiplegia. Unfor- tunately, the author does not state how the cerebral pulse was recorded and fails

also to mention what the ordinates of time were in the two1 smoked drum records

reproduced. The cerebral pulse appears to have been recorded plethysmograph- ically. Quantitation of the observed changes is, however, impossible since the

instrument was apparently not calibrated.

In spite of these defects the observations are, if SubstanDiated, of considerable

interest. In the first curve a decrease in brain volume and in amplitude of pulsa-