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Summary Cold injury was produced by immersing the rabbits' hind limbs in a mixture of ice and alcohol at a temperature of −5°C. to −10°C. for 2 hours. The limb was thawed slowly at the room temperature. Extent of damage was classified into six degrees, depending upon tissue survival. The efficacy of nicotinic acid, 10 to 20 mg. per kilogram of body weight, administered orally in three divided doses, was studied in different groups of rabbits. Nicotinic acid proved useful in reducing or preventing the damage caused by local cold injury in rabbits. Some possible explanations for this beneficial effect are discussed.

Various therapeutic measures and drugs have been used in minimizing the deleterious effects of cold injury. Considering the cold injury as an aseptic inflammatory process,1 we decided to evaluate the possible role of the anti inflammatory agent, oxyphenbutazone (Tanderil), in the treatment of cold injury in rabbits.

ACUTE mountain sickness and high altitude pulmonary oedema are two acute medical problems for troops in the Himalayan terrain who frequently shuttle between sea level and high altitudes (10,000–16,000 ft.). These two acute illnesses have some features in common: time lag (they rarely occur within 12 h of arrival at the altitude or 96 h after arrival), throbbing headache, muscular cramps and pulmonary congestion. We have studied the acute circulatory response to high altitude hypoxia and investigated the extent to which shifts in the circulating blood volumes, if any, could be related to the time lag and clinical features of these acute illnesses.

Postoperative peritoneal adhesions are one of the important causes of intestinal obstruction. Coletti and Bossart 1 reported that in their series, intestinal adhesions were responsible for 90% of small bowel obstructions in the early postoperative period. Numerous agents have been studied experimentally and clinically with regard to their usefulness in preventing the formation of intraperitoneal adhesions, but none, as yet, has proved consistently useful. Considering formation of peritoneal adhesions as an inflammatory process, 2 an anti-inflammatory agent, oxyphenbutazone, has been used in this study to prevent it. Materials and Methods Forty rabbits were anesthetized with intravenously administered pentobarbital sodium. A laparotomy was carried out by a midline incision. The cecum and corresponding parietal peritoneum were scraped until the normal gloss was lost. The abdomen was closed in layers. The animals were studied in the following groups: Group A. —This group was subdivided into two. Group Al, the control group, consisted

Peritoneal adhesions were produced in 20 rabbits and 35 monkeys by traumatizing the cecum and corresponding parietal peritoneum. Adhesions were classified into six grades, depending on the extent and density. Combined therapy with oxyphenbutazone, proteolytic enzymes from carica papaya, and dextran 40 after lysis of adhesions reduced the reformation of peritoneal adhesions significantly, and the percentage reduction was greatest as compared to the individual use of the drugs. It is emphasized that the role of any therapy in peritoneal adhesions should be evaluated only by the decrease in the reformation of adhesions after lysis.