BY JOHN BRUCE MacCALLUM Late Assistant Professor of Physiology in the University of California BERKELEY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1906 The following pamphlet was completed only a few days prior to the death of the author, which occurred on the sixth of April, nineteen hundred and six. Through his death Physiology was robbed of one of its most brilliant young investigators. John Bruce MacCallum was born in Dunnville, Canada, on the eighth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-six. Through the infl

1. Fresh-water Cladocera. University of Toronto Quarterly, May, 1895. 2. On the Histology and Histogenesis of the Heart Muscle Cell. Anatomischer Anzeiger, Bd. XIII, 1897. 3. On the Pathology of Fragmentatio Myocardii and Myocarditis Fibrosa. Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, No. 89, 1898. 4. On the Histogenesis of the Striated Muscle Fibre and the Growth of the Human Sartorius Muscle. Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, Nos. 90-91, 1898. 5. A Contribution to the Knowledge of the Pathology of Fragme

The following pages contain an account of a long series of experiments made to determine the action of saline purgatives. Many of the results have been separately published in various scientific journals, and they are now gathered together with certain new material in an attempt to give as connected and complete an account as possible of the action of this class of drugs. The experiments were begun at the suggestion of Professor Loeb, to whom I am greatly indebted for the constant interest which

The normal movements of the intestine have been described by many observers, and in these descriptions there is a fair amount of uniformity. Ludwig and his pupils, Bayliss and Starling, Magnus and others have studied this subject with much care. In such a complicated organ as the intestine there are many sources of error, and differences of opinion may readily arise if an attempt is made to analyze too closely the functions of the various tissues making up the intestine, to decide for example wh

It is probable that under normal conditions a fluid is secreted from the entire length of the intestine, but this fluid undoubtedly differs somewhat in the various parts. The duodenum with Brunner’s glands, the jejunum and ileum with the glands of Lieberkühn and the large intestine in which there is a preponderance of mucus cells may be assumed to give secretions which are not identical. The methods which have been used to obtain the succus entericus for analysis are subject to criticism, and mu

It at once suggests itself to the physician that some clinical use might be made of the facts outlined above. If such striking results can be obtained in a rabbit it is possible that some modifications of the use of these saline purgatives might be made in the human being. If in the first place it is found that subcutaneous or intravenous injections of saline purgatives are effective in man, there arise in both medical and surgical practice occasions in which these methods of administration woul