Renewed interest has developed in the status of the pancreatic islets, following the availability of purified growth hormone preparations. In the Fall of 1953 it was observed that the alloxan-diabetic rats receiving purified growth hormone, showed a considerable reduction in blood sugar, as compared with the control animals. This attracted the interest of our Director Dr. D.R. Webster, who envisaged the possibility of investigating the insulotropic effect of growth hormone, and its possible role in the etiology of islet cell tumour. [...]

Advances in gastric physiology have followed the accretion of experimental evidence in a pattern largely determined by available experimental techniques. Three major fields may be grossly discerned. The integration of gastric secretion with other events of the digestive process first received the major attention of organ physiology, as exemplified by the work of Pavlov's laboratory. Interest in the alimentary regulation of gastric secretion continues unabated at the present time despite the fact that much is well confirmed. [...]

The realization that electricity was closely associated to living matter was reported in 1773 when Hunter (21) described the electrical potentials of the Torpedo fish. A few years later Galvani (17) produced a muscle contraction in the frog with a zinc-copper couple. Further research showed that electrical currents were associated not only with animal life but also with plant life. Plants have a potential which is most marked in the growing parts, as near a root tip. [...]

Bile is a product of secretion and excretion of the liver. Its composition and function is most complex. Volumes have been written on various aspects of the biliary tract and bile. One of the most complexing problems has been that of partial biliary obstruction. We are all only too familiar with the clinical course of the “acquired biliary stricture,” and the “post-cholecystectomy syndrome” which result from an impairment of biliary outflow. Because of the rather confusing clinical picture that such conditions present and the difficulty encountered in attempting to follow these cases in a serial fashion, it was felt that an experimental study incorporating well established liver function tests, pathological and bacteriological methods should be attempted.

“Shock is a depression of the vital powers, induced suddenly by external injury and essentially dependent on loss of innervation. It bears the same relation to the nervous system as syncope to the vascular. In the one case, the result is caused by a diminution of the nervous fluid, in the other, by a diminution of the blood.” (94). This thought of Dr. Samuel Gross, 1872, pathologist and surgeon, marks the beginning of the investigation of shock mechanism.

In the past, studies on factors affecting the experimental production of gastric adenocarcinoma have been hampered by the lack of a method which would produce adenocarcinomas of the stomach in a significant number of animals. Until 18 years ago there were no successful authentic cases of experimentally induced gastric adenocarcinoma. During the past 30 years many studies have been carried out, but the results of the best series have been at most disappointing.

Increasing interest has developed in the last few years in the study of plasma. For many years red blood cells have been studied, and techniques developed to make blood transfusion a safe procedure. The fluid part of a transfusion or blood plasma was considered to be useful, because, amongst other things, it contributed to blood volume, and certainly it was long thought to be harmless when taken from another member of the same species.

Increasing interest in the use of intra-arterial transfusion to combat the more refractory forms of shock has been apparent in the recent literature. Included amongst those forms of shock which react favourably to this form of therapy is the hypotension which occasionally follows an acute myocardial infarction. The easy availability of stored human blood with the advent of community blood banks has resulted in a very marked increase in the amount of blood used both therapeutically and prophylactically.

This study falls into two parts. In Part 1 the development of ureterocolostomy techniques is first outlined. Then the literature is reviewed to give some indication of the frequency of renal damage and hyperchloraemic acidosis following ureterocolostomy. The apparent inability of more modern ureteral implantation methods to abolish these hazards is then considered.

In this thesis a review of the clinical status of total gastrectomy, With its various sequellae is submitted. The defective nutrition consequent upon such an operation is studied in the experimental animal, with special reference to fat absorption and alimentation time. Attempts to improve the nutrition in the gastrectomized dog are recorded using a ganglionic blocking agent, hexamethonium bromide, and short reversed segments of bowel left in continuity with the intestinal tract. [...]