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APPARATUS FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF SOMNOFORM.
1510 BERP1ARD MYERS. London : Baillière, 1903. Pp 131. Price 2s. 6d. net.-This is a useful little book but we think that Dr. Myers goes rather beyond his definition of home nursing given in the Home
N1Pl’sing. By
Tindall, and Cox.
first sentence: "By Home Nursing we mean to imply the care of the sick in their own homes by a person who has not had a proper hospital training." The preface, too, states that "this book is written in the hope that it may be of service in guiding an untrained nurse in her duties when administering to the sick and dear ones at home." The ideal is excellent but, like most ideals, it will not be attained-in our opinion at least. No one can learn nursing, anatomy, or physiology from a book. The book, however, is sound enough in itself and the directions Its great use will be for persons far are clearly laid down. removed from medical aid who must rely on their own resources and it possesses one singular advantage-namely, that it will not tempt the amateur nurse to take too much Some recipes for sick-room cookery are upon herself. which are good except in one point-namely, in the given recipe for white wine whey. Dr. Myers says, "Add two wine-glasses of cooking sherry." Now, what is called "cooking sherry"is an abomination. We do not mean to say that Oloroso at 60s. a dozen need be used but if sherry is not good enough to drink by itself it is certainly not good enough to cook with and more especially in the case of an invalid. There is plenty of real sound sherry to be purchased for 30s. a dozen or even less.
The
Sea
shore.
and
ERRATUM.—In a review which appeared in our issue last week (p. 1441) of "A Short Manual of Analytical Chemistry" the author’s name should have been given as John Muter, Ph.D., F.I.C., F.C.S., and not Nuter as printed.
New Inventions. APPARATUS FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF SOMNOFORM.
THE accompanying illu-tration represents an apparatus which I have been using For some time for the administration of somnoform and consists of a celluloid face-piece and a rubber pad connected to a rubber bag. A piece of lint, easily changeable, about 4 inches by 8 inches, can be adapted to the interior of the face-piece by means of a special spring. I have found that with this apparatus a dose of from 2 5 to 3 cubic centimetre of somnoform is enough to produce within from 45 to 50 seconds an anxsthesia sufficient either to act as a brief general anaesthetic or as a precursor to ether. The advantages I claim for my apparatus are : 1. Simplicity of construction, there being no valves, or anything ele, liable to get out of order. 2. That the lint does not require any special shape, a piece 4 inches by 8 inches being all that is necessary. 3. That the aperture
leading to
the
fore
in
respiration. 4. one face-piece, relatively inexpensive.
difficulty
ratus, fitted with
That the cost of the appais only .&bgr;1ls. and is there-
II and
The apparatus has been made to mv design by Messrs. Allen Hanburys, from whom it can be obtained. H. EDMUND G. BOYLE, M.R C.S.Eng., L.R C.P.Lond, Junior Resident Anæsthetist, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.
By W,
S. FURNEAUX. London : Co. 1903. Pp. 436. Price 6s. net.-This is an admirable book to give to anyone who lives by the sea or spends his holiday there. Of course, most of the creatures here described are not to be found on a chalky shore for the true hunting ground of the marine naturalist is off the shores of Devonshire, Cornwall, and the Welsh coast. But the delights of the rock pools have seldom been set forth in a more attractive manner since the days of "A Year by the Shore," "Glaucus," and "The Water Babies." Mr. Furneaux gives simple descriptions of all living forms to be met witti on a rocky sea coast, the book is plentifully illustrated, some pictures being good examples of colour printing, and he has succeeded in making the problem of the tides intelligible.
Longmans, Green,
any
bag has
been made
Looking
Back.
FROM
THE LANCET,
SATURDAY NOV. 26, 1825.
FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN MEDICAL JOURNALS.
Chemical Experiments on Morphine. Chemists have not hitherto been able to obtain morphine in the state in which it exists in opium, since opium is entirely dissolved in water, while pure morphine is nearly insoluble. For this reason morphine has been introduced into the materia medica in a state of combination with an acid, such as the acetic sulphuric acid, &c. ; hence the names of acetate of morphine, f-ulnhate of morphine, &c. A memoir lately published by M. Robinet, seemed to have solved the difficulty. The experiments of M. Robinet, though the direct object of them has not been accomplished, have been attended with some curious and important results. He has discovered that morphine, and the salts of morphine, with the muriate of iron highly oxidised, produce a deep blue colour, exactly resembling that produced by a hydrocyanate, and, what is very singular, this effect is owing exclusively to the morphine. Some particles of morphine, wetted with a drop of the solution of peroxidised iron, produce immediately this blue colour ; but if a few drops of any acid, though greatly diluted, be added, the colour disappears. Acetic sether and alcohol produce the same effect ; but not sulphuric setber, unless some portion of alcohol remains. The presence of the alkali seems to favour the production of the blue colour. Powdered morphine, mixed in a very weak solution of muriate of iron, gives it a blue colour, is dissolved, and at the end of some days precipitates a certain quantity of yellow oxide of iron. These characters prove sufliciently that the colour produced by the morphine is not to be confounded with that produced by the hydrocyana’es under the same circumstances. Quinine, cinchonine, strichnine, and brucine, exhibit no -uch phenomena. The memoir of M. Robinet contains many other details, interesting in a chemical point of view, but less immediately connected with the objects of this journal. The results of the above experiments are not only curious, as
exhibiting a new property of morphine, but may be practical importance in medical jurisprudence.- Gazette especially large to prevent Sante, Oct. 15.
of de
N1Pl’sing. By
Tindall, and Cox.
first sentence: "By Home Nursing we mean to imply the care of the sick in their own homes by a person who has not had a proper hospital training." The preface, too, states that "this book is written in the hope that it may be of service in guiding an untrained nurse in her duties when administering to the sick and dear ones at home." The ideal is excellent but, like most ideals, it will not be attained-in our opinion at least. No one can learn nursing, anatomy, or physiology from a book. The book, however, is sound enough in itself and the directions Its great use will be for persons far are clearly laid down. removed from medical aid who must rely on their own resources and it possesses one singular advantage-namely, that it will not tempt the amateur nurse to take too much Some recipes for sick-room cookery are upon herself. which are good except in one point-namely, in the given recipe for white wine whey. Dr. Myers says, "Add two wine-glasses of cooking sherry." Now, what is called "cooking sherry"is an abomination. We do not mean to say that Oloroso at 60s. a dozen need be used but if sherry is not good enough to drink by itself it is certainly not good enough to cook with and more especially in the case of an invalid. There is plenty of real sound sherry to be purchased for 30s. a dozen or even less.
The
Sea
shore.
and
ERRATUM.—In a review which appeared in our issue last week (p. 1441) of "A Short Manual of Analytical Chemistry" the author’s name should have been given as John Muter, Ph.D., F.I.C., F.C.S., and not Nuter as printed.
New Inventions. APPARATUS FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF SOMNOFORM.
THE accompanying illu-tration represents an apparatus which I have been using For some time for the administration of somnoform and consists of a celluloid face-piece and a rubber pad connected to a rubber bag. A piece of lint, easily changeable, about 4 inches by 8 inches, can be adapted to the interior of the face-piece by means of a special spring. I have found that with this apparatus a dose of from 2 5 to 3 cubic centimetre of somnoform is enough to produce within from 45 to 50 seconds an anxsthesia sufficient either to act as a brief general anaesthetic or as a precursor to ether. The advantages I claim for my apparatus are : 1. Simplicity of construction, there being no valves, or anything ele, liable to get out of order. 2. That the lint does not require any special shape, a piece 4 inches by 8 inches being all that is necessary. 3. That the aperture
leading to
the
fore
in
respiration. 4. one face-piece, relatively inexpensive.
difficulty
ratus, fitted with
That the cost of the appais only .&bgr;1ls. and is there-
II and
The apparatus has been made to mv design by Messrs. Allen Hanburys, from whom it can be obtained. H. EDMUND G. BOYLE, M.R C.S.Eng., L.R C.P.Lond, Junior Resident Anæsthetist, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.
By W,
S. FURNEAUX. London : Co. 1903. Pp. 436. Price 6s. net.-This is an admirable book to give to anyone who lives by the sea or spends his holiday there. Of course, most of the creatures here described are not to be found on a chalky shore for the true hunting ground of the marine naturalist is off the shores of Devonshire, Cornwall, and the Welsh coast. But the delights of the rock pools have seldom been set forth in a more attractive manner since the days of "A Year by the Shore," "Glaucus," and "The Water Babies." Mr. Furneaux gives simple descriptions of all living forms to be met witti on a rocky sea coast, the book is plentifully illustrated, some pictures being good examples of colour printing, and he has succeeded in making the problem of the tides intelligible.
Longmans, Green,
any
bag has
been made
Looking
Back.
FROM
THE LANCET,
SATURDAY NOV. 26, 1825.
FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN MEDICAL JOURNALS.
Chemical Experiments on Morphine. Chemists have not hitherto been able to obtain morphine in the state in which it exists in opium, since opium is entirely dissolved in water, while pure morphine is nearly insoluble. For this reason morphine has been introduced into the materia medica in a state of combination with an acid, such as the acetic sulphuric acid, &c. ; hence the names of acetate of morphine, f-ulnhate of morphine, &c. A memoir lately published by M. Robinet, seemed to have solved the difficulty. The experiments of M. Robinet, though the direct object of them has not been accomplished, have been attended with some curious and important results. He has discovered that morphine, and the salts of morphine, with the muriate of iron highly oxidised, produce a deep blue colour, exactly resembling that produced by a hydrocyanate, and, what is very singular, this effect is owing exclusively to the morphine. Some particles of morphine, wetted with a drop of the solution of peroxidised iron, produce immediately this blue colour ; but if a few drops of any acid, though greatly diluted, be added, the colour disappears. Acetic sether and alcohol produce the same effect ; but not sulphuric setber, unless some portion of alcohol remains. The presence of the alkali seems to favour the production of the blue colour. Powdered morphine, mixed in a very weak solution of muriate of iron, gives it a blue colour, is dissolved, and at the end of some days precipitates a certain quantity of yellow oxide of iron. These characters prove sufliciently that the colour produced by the morphine is not to be confounded with that produced by the hydrocyana’es under the same circumstances. Quinine, cinchonine, strichnine, and brucine, exhibit no -uch phenomena. The memoir of M. Robinet contains many other details, interesting in a chemical point of view, but less immediately connected with the objects of this journal. The results of the above experiments are not only curious, as
exhibiting a new property of morphine, but may be practical importance in medical jurisprudence.- Gazette especially large to prevent Sante, Oct. 15.
of de