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ISO-KREATININE.
1546 at Moscow
by Bokay. Upon a child aged seven months, egg-shell impacted in the larynx, intubation was performed to break up the fragments which were - expelled not through the tube but after its removal. The method of M. Bonnus certainly deserves a trial in similar it is lcs9 serious than tracheotomy which can be
some
A CORRECTION. IN a leading article which was published in THE LANCET of Oct. 16th the following words occurred : "Alderman Cooke, chairman of the Hospital Saturday Fund, said emphatically to our Commissioner:A subscription to a - fund, whether it be weekly or yearly, gives no right what.ever."’ It has been pointed out to us that the words thus attributed to Mr. Alderman Cook were really used by Mr. W. T. Smedley, the honorary secretary of the Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund ; and we have been referred by Mr. Smedley to an article written by him some four years ago in Forwa’1’d, the official journal of the Birmingham Hospital ’Saturday Fund, where the phrase occurs. We are sorry for the error, for which, we may add, our Commissioner was in ÐO
way
responsible.
-
PROPOSED MONUMENT TO THE LATE BARON SIR FERDINAND VON MUELLER, K.C.M.G.,
M.D., F.R.S., ETC. BY the death of Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller at South on Oct. 10th, 1896, the scientific world lost one of its most erudite and industrious professors. As botanist he did some most painstaking work and it is gratifying to note that his supplemental volume of the "Flora Australiensis" which he was preparing for the press at the time of his death will be published by his ’executors together with two volumes on his administration as Director of the Botanical Gardens, Victoria, with a biography and complete bibliography of his writings. It is ,also intended to erect over his grave in the St. Kilda Cemetery a monument of grey granite twenty-three feet in ,height surrounded by an ornamental iron railing. Subscriptions are earnestly requested and will be received by the
’Yarra, Victoria,
Government
Rev. W. Potter, "Vonmueller," Arnold-street, South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. ---
A WONDERFUL INVENTION. A SYNDICATE has been started with a capital of E5000 in 1 shares under the title of the " Ditcham Divinometer Syndicate, Limited." According to the prospectus the object ,of the association is "to acquire from Dr. Ditcham, the inventor, an instrument known as the ’ Divinometer’ and his patent and other rights therein." We also learn from the eame authority that"this invention consists of a novel machine of simple construction whereby it is claimed that the psychic force of the individual can be gauged and the - character of his will power determined," and are further ,modestly informed that "this discovery is as unique The directors of in its way as the Rontgen rays." Mr. Elphinstone Thorpe, Mr. Louis concern are
by which
it is proposed to make the speculation comsuccessful. Ordinary ignorant people will be sure to want to know whether psychic force is a desirable possession or one to be mitigated by medicine. Perhaps means
mercially
the syndicate hope to gain fees from employers on the lookout for assistants. It is not difficult to imagine a druggist, for instance, anxiously awaiting the verdict as to the psychic
force of
a probationary pill-manipulator or a dressmaker on while that of a prepossessing employée is being tested. thorns But supposing the examinee had more will power than the examiner how would the divinometer act ?2 It is really most regrettable that more ample information has not been’ afforded. ___
ISO-KREATININE. A New nitrogenous substance differing from kreatinine in various particulars but especially in having a yellow colour has been obtained by Dr. Thesen of Christiania from the muscles of the codfish. To isolate it the dried muscle is infused in a large quantity of water to which a few drops of chloroform are added to prevent putrefaction. The vessel is set aside for the muscular tissue to subside and the supernatant fluid is boiled down to half its bulk. The albumin which is thus coagulated is removed with a spoon and the fluid is filtered and evaporated till the salts begin to make their appearance. The extract is mixed with its own volume of alcohol and allowed to stand to permit the subsidence of gelatin and inorganic salts precipitated by the alcohol. The alcohol is then distilled off when the yellow crystals of iso-kreatinine often make their appearance. On further addition of alcohol and purification with boiling water the iso-kreatinine can be collected in quantity in the form of small, deilcate, shining, yellow laminse. Dr. Thesen obtained about one gramme of isokreatinine from one kilogramme of cod’s flesh, the actual quantity present being probably considerably greater. Its taste is bitter with an unpleasant after-taste. At a temperature of about 230°-240°C. it decomposes and at a somewhat higher temperature burns. It does not rotate the plane of polarisation. Its rational formula seems to be C4H7N3O. It is therefore isomeric with kreatinine. Its reaction is alkaline :and it forms well-defined salts with acids. It would be interesting to know whether this new body reduces alkaline copper solution
DR. YERSIN AT BOMBAY. DR. YERSIN’s report on his late visit to Bombay is published in the Archives de Médecine Navale et Coloniale for November. He arrived on March 5th, 1897, having with him a very limited supply of serum which had been prepared by means of dead bacilli. If used the first day of the declared disease he found that thirty cubic centimetres were sufficient to effect a cure but on the second day four or five times as much was necessary. Most unfortunately from every point of view M. Pesas, the director of the laboratory at Nhatrang, died shortly after Dr. Yersin’s departure and there was consequently some delay in obtaining a fresh supply of serum, for M. Roux in Paris " was not yet ready." Dr. Yersin treated 17 cases on the first day of the disease with a mortality of 12 per cent.; 17 on the second day, mortality 35 per cent. ; 12 on the third’day, mortality 50 per cent. ; and 4 of longer standing, mortality 75 per cent.; the average death-rate on fifty cases treated being 34 per cent.-a very great improvement on the general ratio which among natives amounted to 85 per cent. We recently mentioned Dr. Bonneau’s views regarding the relative efficiency of the anti-plague serums when prepared with living and dead microbes.l Dr. Yersin low confirms the statement that the intravenous injection of .iving cultures produces a more active serum in a shorter iime but the process is so deadly to the horses, killing quite lalf of them, that he was induced to devise the second 1
THE
LANCET, Oct. 16th, 1897, p. 995.
by Bokay. Upon a child aged seven months, egg-shell impacted in the larynx, intubation was performed to break up the fragments which were - expelled not through the tube but after its removal. The method of M. Bonnus certainly deserves a trial in similar it is lcs9 serious than tracheotomy which can be
some
A CORRECTION. IN a leading article which was published in THE LANCET of Oct. 16th the following words occurred : "Alderman Cooke, chairman of the Hospital Saturday Fund, said emphatically to our Commissioner:A subscription to a - fund, whether it be weekly or yearly, gives no right what.ever."’ It has been pointed out to us that the words thus attributed to Mr. Alderman Cook were really used by Mr. W. T. Smedley, the honorary secretary of the Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund ; and we have been referred by Mr. Smedley to an article written by him some four years ago in Forwa’1’d, the official journal of the Birmingham Hospital ’Saturday Fund, where the phrase occurs. We are sorry for the error, for which, we may add, our Commissioner was in ÐO
way
responsible.
-
PROPOSED MONUMENT TO THE LATE BARON SIR FERDINAND VON MUELLER, K.C.M.G.,
M.D., F.R.S., ETC. BY the death of Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller at South on Oct. 10th, 1896, the scientific world lost one of its most erudite and industrious professors. As botanist he did some most painstaking work and it is gratifying to note that his supplemental volume of the "Flora Australiensis" which he was preparing for the press at the time of his death will be published by his ’executors together with two volumes on his administration as Director of the Botanical Gardens, Victoria, with a biography and complete bibliography of his writings. It is ,also intended to erect over his grave in the St. Kilda Cemetery a monument of grey granite twenty-three feet in ,height surrounded by an ornamental iron railing. Subscriptions are earnestly requested and will be received by the
’Yarra, Victoria,
Government
Rev. W. Potter, "Vonmueller," Arnold-street, South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. ---
A WONDERFUL INVENTION. A SYNDICATE has been started with a capital of E5000 in 1 shares under the title of the " Ditcham Divinometer Syndicate, Limited." According to the prospectus the object ,of the association is "to acquire from Dr. Ditcham, the inventor, an instrument known as the ’ Divinometer’ and his patent and other rights therein." We also learn from the eame authority that"this invention consists of a novel machine of simple construction whereby it is claimed that the psychic force of the individual can be gauged and the - character of his will power determined," and are further ,modestly informed that "this discovery is as unique The directors of in its way as the Rontgen rays." Mr. Elphinstone Thorpe, Mr. Louis concern are
by which
it is proposed to make the speculation comsuccessful. Ordinary ignorant people will be sure to want to know whether psychic force is a desirable possession or one to be mitigated by medicine. Perhaps means
mercially
the syndicate hope to gain fees from employers on the lookout for assistants. It is not difficult to imagine a druggist, for instance, anxiously awaiting the verdict as to the psychic
force of
a probationary pill-manipulator or a dressmaker on while that of a prepossessing employée is being tested. thorns But supposing the examinee had more will power than the examiner how would the divinometer act ?2 It is really most regrettable that more ample information has not been’ afforded. ___
ISO-KREATININE. A New nitrogenous substance differing from kreatinine in various particulars but especially in having a yellow colour has been obtained by Dr. Thesen of Christiania from the muscles of the codfish. To isolate it the dried muscle is infused in a large quantity of water to which a few drops of chloroform are added to prevent putrefaction. The vessel is set aside for the muscular tissue to subside and the supernatant fluid is boiled down to half its bulk. The albumin which is thus coagulated is removed with a spoon and the fluid is filtered and evaporated till the salts begin to make their appearance. The extract is mixed with its own volume of alcohol and allowed to stand to permit the subsidence of gelatin and inorganic salts precipitated by the alcohol. The alcohol is then distilled off when the yellow crystals of iso-kreatinine often make their appearance. On further addition of alcohol and purification with boiling water the iso-kreatinine can be collected in quantity in the form of small, deilcate, shining, yellow laminse. Dr. Thesen obtained about one gramme of isokreatinine from one kilogramme of cod’s flesh, the actual quantity present being probably considerably greater. Its taste is bitter with an unpleasant after-taste. At a temperature of about 230°-240°C. it decomposes and at a somewhat higher temperature burns. It does not rotate the plane of polarisation. Its rational formula seems to be C4H7N3O. It is therefore isomeric with kreatinine. Its reaction is alkaline :and it forms well-defined salts with acids. It would be interesting to know whether this new body reduces alkaline copper solution
DR. YERSIN AT BOMBAY. DR. YERSIN’s report on his late visit to Bombay is published in the Archives de Médecine Navale et Coloniale for November. He arrived on March 5th, 1897, having with him a very limited supply of serum which had been prepared by means of dead bacilli. If used the first day of the declared disease he found that thirty cubic centimetres were sufficient to effect a cure but on the second day four or five times as much was necessary. Most unfortunately from every point of view M. Pesas, the director of the laboratory at Nhatrang, died shortly after Dr. Yersin’s departure and there was consequently some delay in obtaining a fresh supply of serum, for M. Roux in Paris " was not yet ready." Dr. Yersin treated 17 cases on the first day of the disease with a mortality of 12 per cent.; 17 on the second day, mortality 35 per cent. ; 12 on the third’day, mortality 50 per cent. ; and 4 of longer standing, mortality 75 per cent.; the average death-rate on fifty cases treated being 34 per cent.-a very great improvement on the general ratio which among natives amounted to 85 per cent. We recently mentioned Dr. Bonneau’s views regarding the relative efficiency of the anti-plague serums when prepared with living and dead microbes.l Dr. Yersin low confirms the statement that the intravenous injection of .iving cultures produces a more active serum in a shorter iime but the process is so deadly to the horses, killing quite lalf of them, that he was induced to devise the second 1
THE
LANCET, Oct. 16th, 1897, p. 995.