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Toxicity of germanium
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CURRENT TOPICS.
1J. 1;. I.
Chemicals from Corn Cobs.-By developing new methods of extracting furfural from corn cobs, chemists of the United States Department of Agriculture have greatly reduced the cost of making this chemical, which is used in the manufacture of soluble and insoluble resins for stains, varnishes, insulating material, printing plates, and many other articles. Furfural has been made commercially from oat hulls and has been selling for about 50 cents a pound, but when made from cobs it is estimated that it can be manufactured at a cost of about IO cents a pound. Cobs give the greatest yield of furfural of any of the common agricultural materials that contain it. R. .-The rare element germanium lies next Toxicity of Germanium to arsenic in the periodic system. The relative toxicity of these two elements is therefore a matter of interest. F. S. HAMMETT, J. H. MULLER, and J. E. MOWREY, JR., of the University of Pennsylvania (Jour. Pharm. and Exp. Therapeutics, 1922, xix, 337-342), have studied the relative toxicity of germanium dioxide and arsenious oxide when administered subcutaneously to albino rats. Arsenious oxide usually produced fatal results when given in a dose of 8 millegrams per kilogram of body weight ; sublethal doses caused sloughing Germanium dioxide in doses as great as at the point of injection. 180 millegrams per kilogram of body weight produced neither death nor any apparent evidences of harmful effect; sloughing did not With respect to toxicity, germanium occur at the point of injection. resembles the tin group rather than the arsenic group of elements. J. S. H.
CURRENT TOPICS.
1J. 1;. I.
Chemicals from Corn Cobs.-By developing new methods of extracting furfural from corn cobs, chemists of the United States Department of Agriculture have greatly reduced the cost of making this chemical, which is used in the manufacture of soluble and insoluble resins for stains, varnishes, insulating material, printing plates, and many other articles. Furfural has been made commercially from oat hulls and has been selling for about 50 cents a pound, but when made from cobs it is estimated that it can be manufactured at a cost of about IO cents a pound. Cobs give the greatest yield of furfural of any of the common agricultural materials that contain it. R. .-The rare element germanium lies next Toxicity of Germanium to arsenic in the periodic system. The relative toxicity of these two elements is therefore a matter of interest. F. S. HAMMETT, J. H. MULLER, and J. E. MOWREY, JR., of the University of Pennsylvania (Jour. Pharm. and Exp. Therapeutics, 1922, xix, 337-342), have studied the relative toxicity of germanium dioxide and arsenious oxide when administered subcutaneously to albino rats. Arsenious oxide usually produced fatal results when given in a dose of 8 millegrams per kilogram of body weight ; sublethal doses caused sloughing Germanium dioxide in doses as great as at the point of injection. 180 millegrams per kilogram of body weight produced neither death nor any apparent evidences of harmful effect; sloughing did not With respect to toxicity, germanium occur at the point of injection. resembles the tin group rather than the arsenic group of elements. J. S. H.