STUDIES IN EDEMA : I. COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION INTO THE ACTION OF CALCIUM CHLORIDE AND SODIUM CHLORIDE ON THE PRODUCTION OF URINE, INTESTINAL FLUID AND ASCITES.

1. The secretion of urine and the elimination of fluid through the intestinal canal which are caused by the intravenous injection of solution of 0.85 per cent. sodium chloride are decreased by the addition of calcium chloride to the sodium chloride solution. The secretion of urine is more markedly inhibited than is the elimination of fluid through the intestines. 2. In contradistinction to the decreased elimination of fluid through the kidneys and intestines, addition of calcium chloride to the sodium chloride solution increases markedly the transudation of fluid into the peritoneal cavity. To a certain degree the urine and ascites may be said to increase in an inverse proportion. 3. Although calcium chloride inhibits both absorption from and secretion into the intestines it seems to decrease the secretion more markedly than the absorption. 4. The action of calcium chloride in increasing the ascitic fluid is a double one: first, by diminishing the amount of urine secreted: secondly, by increasing the ascites independently of its action on the kidneys. The latter may be a direct action on the endothelial cells of the peritoneal cavity: this, however, must be determined by further investigations. 5. Addition of calcium chloride to the infused fluids increases the tendency to the occurrence of edema of the lungs. 6. Infusion of large quantities of fluid into animals dilutes the blood, but this dilution seems to be carried only to a certain degree— about 30 per cent.—and to be independent of the chemical character of the solution and of the function of the kidneys. 7. The presence or absence of the kidneys has a marked influence on the intestinal and ascitic fluids. When the averages of ascitic and intestinal fluids per 1,000 c.c. of retained fluid in non-nephrectomized animals and these fluids per 1,000 c.c. of infused fluid in nephrectomized animals are compared, more fluid is found in the case of the nephrectomized animals. This fact can only be explained in part by the shorter time necessary for the same amount of fluid to be retained in the case of the nephrectomized animals. Nephrectomy causes an increase of the ascites and the intestinal fluids through a mechanism which will have to be investigated by means of further experiments.