Chapter 8

To analyze this liquid therapeutically, it may be broadly stated that salts of potash are _diuretic_, salts of magnesia _aperient_, and salts of soda _neutral_, except in excessive doses, or in combination with acids of varying medicinal action; thus, soda in nitric acid, nitrate of soda, is a _diuretic_, following the law of nitrates as nitrate of potash, a most powerful diuretic, nitrous ether, etc.; while soda in combination with sulphuric acid as sulphate of soda is _aperient_, following the law of sulphates, which increase aperient action, as in sulphate of magnesia, etc.

Thus it would seem that soda holds the scales evenly between potash and magnesia in this medical sense, and that it is weighed, so to speak, on either side by the kind of mineral acid with which it may be combined.

With non-poisonous vegetable acids, and these slightly in excess, there is not such an effect produced.

Sodium is an important constituent of the human body, and citric acid, from its carbon, almost a food. Although no one would advocate saline drinks in excess, yet, under especial circumstances, the solution of it in the form of citrate can hardly be hurtful when used to moisten the throat and tongue, for it will never be used under circumstances where it can be taken in large quantities.

In the converted sea water the bulk of the solids is composed of inert citrate of soda. There is a little citrate of potash, which is a feeble diuretic; a little citrate and sulphate of magnesia, a slight aperient, corrected, however, by the constipatory half grain of sulphate of lime; so that the whole practically is inoperative.

The combination of these salts in nature's proportions would seem to indicate that they must be the best for administration in those ailments to which their use would be beneficial.

Citrate of silver is an almost insoluble salt, and requires to be kept from the light, air, and organic matter, it being very easily decomposed.

A stoppered bottle covered with India-rubber was exhibited as indicating a suitable preserver of the salt, as it affords protection against light, air, and breakage. As one ounce of silver citrate will convert half a pint of sea water into a drinkable fluid, and a man can keep alive upon it a day, then seven ounces of it will keep him a week, and so on, it may not unreasonably be hoped, in proportion.

It is proposed to pack the silver citrate in hermetically sealed rubber covered bottles or tubes, to be inserted under the canisters or thwarts of the life-boats in ocean-going vessels, and this can be done at a simple interest on the first outlay, without any loss by depreciation, as it will always be worth its cost, and be invaluable in case of need.

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THE ACIDS OF WOOL OIL.

All wools contain a certain amount of animal oil or grease, which permeates every portion of the fleece. The proportion of oil varies with the breed of sheep. A difference in climate and soil materially affects the yield of oil. This is shown by analyses made of different kinds of wool, both foreign and domestic. Spanish wool was found to have but eight per cent. grease; Australian wool fifteen per cent.; while in some fleeces of Pennsylvania wool as high as forty per cent. was obtained. To extract the oil from the wool, a fleece was put in a tall cylinder and naphtha poured on it. The naphtha on being allowed to drain through slowly dissolved out the grease. This naphtha solution was distilled; the naphtha passing off while grease remained--a dark oil having high specific gravity and remaining nearly solid at the ordinary temperature. I am indebted to Mrs. Richards for this method of extracting the oil. The process is quick and inexpensive, and is applicable to the treatment of large quantities of wool.

The object of these experiments was to find the readiest method of separating wool oil into its bases and acids, and further to identify the various fatty acids. A solution of the oil in naphtha was cooled to 15 deg. C. This caused a separation of the oil into two portions: a white solid fat and a fluid dark oil. The first on examination proved to be a mixture of palmitic and stearic acids existing uncombined in the wool oil. The original wool oil was saponified by boiling with alcoholic potash.

The soap formed was separated into two portions by shaking with ether and water. On standing, the solution separated into two layers, the upper or murial solution containing the bases, the lower or aqueous solution containing the acids. This method of separation is very slow. In one case it worked very well, but as a rule appeared to be almost impracticable. Benzol and naphtha were tried, instead of ether, but the results were less satisfactory. On suggestion of Prof. Ordway, potassium chloride was added to the soap solution partially separated by ether and water. This caused an immediate and complete separation. By the use of potassium chloride it was found possible to effect a separation with benzol and water, also with naphtha and water.

Another means of separation was tried by precipitating the calcium salts, from a solution of the potash soap. From the portion of the calcium salts insoluble in alcohol, a fatty acid was obtained with a melting point and composition almost identical with the melting point and composition of palmitic acid. The aqueous portion of the separation effected by water and ether was examined for the fatty acid. The lead salts of the fatty acids were digested with ether, which dissolved out the lead oleate. From this oleic acid was obtained. This was further purified by forming the Boreum salt of oleic acid. The lead salts not soluble in ether were decomposed by acid. The fatty acids set free were saponified by carbonate of potassium. A fractional precipitation was effected by adding lead acetate in successive portions; each portion sufficient to precipitate one-fourth of all the acids present.

The acid obtained from the first fractionation had the melting point at 75 deg.-76 deg., indicating an acid either in carbon then stearic or palmitic acids.

The acids obtained from the third fractionation had a melting point of 53 deg.-54 deg. C. This acid in composition and general properties was very similar to that obtained by freezing the naphtha solution of the oil, and is probably a mixture of stearic and palmitic acids. These acids, being in combination with the bases of the oil, would be set free only on saponifying the oil and subsequently decomposing with acid.

In conclusion, I should say that but a small proportion of the fatty acids exist in the wool oil uncombined; that the proportion of oleic acid is small, and can only be obtained in an oxidized condition; that the main portion of the fatty acids is composed of stearic and palmitic acids in nearly equal proportions; that the existence of a fatty acid, containing a higher per cent. of carbon than those mentioned, is not fully established.--_N.W. Shedd, M.I.T._

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A NEW ABSORBENT FOR OXYGEN.

OTTO, BARON V.D. PFORDTEN.--The author makes use of a solution of chromous chloride, which he prepares as follows:

He first heats chromic acid with concentrated hydrochloric acid, so as to obtain a strong green solution of chromic chloride free from chlorine. This is then reduced with zinc and hydrochloric acid. The blue chromous chloride solution thus obtained is poured into a saturated solution of sodium acetate in an atmosphere of carbonic acid. A red precipitate of chromous acetate is formed, which is washed by decantation in water containing carbonic acid. This salt is relatively stable, and can be preserved for an indefinite time in a moist condition in stoppered bottles filled with carbonic acid.

In this process the following precautions are to be observed:

Spongy flocks always separate from the zinc used in the reduction, which float about in the acid liquid for a long time and give off minute gas bubbles. If poured into the solution of sodium acetate, they would contaminate the precipitate; and when dissolved in hydrochloric acid, would occasion a slight escape of hydrogen. The solution of chromous chloride must therefore be freed from the zinc by filtration in the absence of air. For this purpose the reduction is carried on in a flask fitted up like a washing bottle. The long tube is bent down outside the flask, and is here provided with a small bulb tube containing glass wool or asbestos. The hydrogen gas liberated during reduction is at first let escape through this tube; afterward its outer end is closed, and it is pressed down into the liquid. The hydrogen must now pass through the shorter tube (the mouthpiece of the washing bottle), which has an India rubber valve. When the reduction is complete, the blue liquid is driven up in the long tube by introducing carbonic acid through the short tube, so that it filters through the asbestos into the solution of sodium acetate into which the reopened end of the long tube dips. When washing out the red precipitate, at first a little acetic acid is added to dissolve any basic zinc carbonate which has been deposited. In this manner a chromous acetate is obtained perfectly free from zinc.

For the absorption of oxygen the compound just described is decomposed with hydrochloric acid in the following simple washing apparatus: Upon a shelf there are fixed side by side two ordinary preparation glasses, closed with caoutchouc stoppers, each having three perforations. Each two apertures receive the glass tubes used in gas washing bottles, while the third holds a dropping funnel. It is filled with dilute hydrochloric acid, and after the expulsion of the air by a current of gas, plentiful quantities of chromous acetate are passed into the bottles. When the current of gas has been passed in for some time, the hydrochloric acid is let enter, which dissolves the chromous acetate, and thus, in the absence of air, produces a solution of blue chromous chloride. It is advisable to use an excess of chromous acetate or an insufficient quantity of hydrochloric acid, so that there may be no free hydrochloric acid in the liquid. To keep back any free acetic acid which might be swept over by the current of gas, there is introduced after the washing apparatus another washing bottle with sodium carbonate. Also solid potassium carbonate may be used instead of calcium chloride for drying the gas. If the two apertures of the washing apparatus are fitted with small pinch cocks, it is ready for use, and merely requires to be connected with the gas apparatus in action in order to free the gas generated from oxygen. As but little chromous salt is decomposed by the oxygen such a washing apparatus may serve for many experiments.

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GAIFFE'S NEW MEDICAL GALVANOMETER.

In this apparatus, which contains but one needle, and has no directing magnet, proportionability between the intensities and deflections is obtained by means of a special form given the frame upon which the wire is wound.

We give herewith a figure of the curve that Mr. Gaiffe has fixed upon after numerous experiments. Upon examination it will be seen that the needle approaches the current in measure as the directing action of the earth increases; and experiment proves that the two actions counterbalance each other, and render the deflections very sensibly proportional to the intensities up to an angle of from 65 to 75 degrees.

Another important fact has likewise been ascertained, and that is that, under such circumstances, the magnetic intensity of the needle may change without the indications ceasing to have the same exactness up to 65 degrees. As well known, Mr. Desains has demonstrated that this occurs likewise in sinus or tangent galvanometers; but these have helices that are very large in proportion to the needle. In medical galvanometers the proportions are no longer the same, and the needle is always very near the directing helix. If this latter is square, or even elliptical, it is found that, beyond an angle of 15 degrees, there are differences of 4 or 5 degrees in the indications given with the same intensity of current by the same needle, according to the latter's intensity of magnetism. This inconvenience is quite grave, for it often happens that a needle changes magnetic intensity, either under the influence of too strong currents sent into the apparatus, or of other magnets in its vicinity, or as a consequence of the bad quality of the steel, etc. It was therefore urgently required that this should be remedied, and from this point of view the new mode of winding the wire is an important improvement introduced into medical galvanometers.--_La Lumiere Electrique_.

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THE SUSPENSION OF LIFE.

Every one knows that life exists in a latent state in the seeds of plants, and may be preserved therein, so to speak, indefinitely. In 1853, Ridolfi deposited in the Egyptian Museum of Florence a sheaf of wheat that he had obtained from seeds found in a mummy case dating back about 3,000 years. This aptitude of revivification is found to a high degree in animalcules of low order. The air which we breathe is loaded with impalpable dust that awaits, for ages perhaps, proper conditions of heat and moisture to give it an ephemeral life that it will lose and acquire by turns.

In 1707, Spallanzani found it possible, eleven times in succession, to suspend the life of rotifers submitted to desiccation, and to call it back again by moistening this organic dust with water. A few years ago Doyere brought to life some tardigrades that had been dried at a temperature of 150 deg. and kept four weeks in a vacuum. If we ascend the scale of beings, we find analogous phenomena produced by diverse causes. Flies that have been imported in casks of Madeira have been resuscitated in Europe, and chrysalids have been kept in this state for years. Cockchafers drowned, and then dried in the sun, have been revived after a lapse of twenty-four hours, two days, and even five days, after submersion. Frogs, salamanders, and spiders poisoned by curare or nicotine, have returned to life after several days of apparent death.

Cold produces some extraordinary effects. Spallanzani kept several frogs in the center of a lump of ice for two years, and, although they became dry, rigid, almost friable, and gave no external appearance of being alive, it was only necessary to expose them to a gradual and moderate heat to put an end to the lethargic state in which they lay.

Pikes and salamanders have at different epochs been revived before the eyes of Maupertuis and Constant Dumeril (members of the Academy of Sciences) after being frozen stiff. Auguste Dumeril, son of Constant, and who was the reporter of the committee relative to the Blois toad in 1851, published a curious memoir the following year in which he narrates how he interrupted life through congelation of the liquids and solids of the organism. Some frogs, whose internal temperature had been reduced to -2 deg. in an atmosphere of -12 deg., returned to life before his eyes, and he observed their tissues regain their usual elasticity and their heart pass from absolute immobility to its normal motion.

There is therefore no reason for doubting the assertions of travelers who tell us that the inhabitants of North America and Russia transport fish that are frozen stiff, and bring them to life again by dipping them into water of ordinary temperature ten or fifteen days afterward. But I think too much reliance should not be put in the process devised by the great English physiologist, Hunter, for prolonging the life of man indefinitely by successive freezings. It has been allowed to no one but a romancer, Mr. Edmond About, to be present at this curious operation.

Among the mammifera we find appearances of death in their winter sleep; but these are incomplete, since the temperature of hibernating animals remains greater by one degree than that of the surrounding air, and the motions of the heart and respiration are simply retarded. Dr. Preyer has observed that a hamster sometimes goes five minutes without breathing appreciably after a fortnight's sleep.

In man himself a suspension of life, or at least phenomena that seem inseparable therefrom, has been observed many times. In the _Journal des Savants_ for 1741 we read that a Col. Russel, having witnessed the death of his wife, whom he tenderly loved, did not wish her buried, and threatened to kill any one who should attempt to remove the body before he witnessed its decomposition himself. Eight days passed by without the woman giving the slightest sign of life, "when, at a moment when he was holding her hand and shedding tears over her, the church bell began to ring, and, to his indescribable surprise, his wife sat up and said, 'It is the last stroke, we shall be too late.' She recovered."

At a session of the Academy of Sciences, Oct. 17, 1864, Mr. Blaudet communicated a report upon a young woman of thirty summers who, being subject to nervous attacks, fell, after her crises, into a sort of lethargic sleep which lasted several weeks and sometimes several months. One of her sleeps, especially, lasted from the beginning of the year 1862 until March, 1863.

Dr. Paul Levasseur relates that, in a certain English family, lethargy seemed to have become hereditary. The first case was exhibited in an old lady who remained for fifteen days in an immovable and insensible state, and who afterward, on regaining her consciousness, lived for quite a long time. Warned by this fact, the family preserved a young man for several weeks who appeared to be dead, but who came to life again.

Dr. Pfendler, in an inaugural thesis (Paris, 1833), minutely describes a case of apparent death of which he himself was a witness. A young girl of Vienna at the age of 15 was attacked by a nervous affection that brought on violent crises followed by lethargic states which lasted three or four days. After a time she became so exhausted that the first physicians of the city declared that there was no more hope. It was not long, in fact, before she was observed to rise in her bed and fall back as if struck with death. "For four hours she appeared to me," says Dr. Pfendler, "completely inanimate. With Messrs. Franck and Schaeffer, I made every possible effort to rekindle the spark of life. Neither mirror, nor burned feather, nor ammonia, nor pricking succeeded in giving us a sign of sensibility. Galvanism was tried without the patient showing any contractility. Mr. Franck believed her to be dead, but nevertheless advised me to leave her on the bed. For twenty-eight hours no change supervened, although it was thought that a little putrefaction was observed. The death bell was sounded, the friends of the girl had dressed her in white and had crowned her with flowers, and all was arranged for her burial. Desiring to convince myself of the course of the putrefaction, I visited the body again, and found that no further advance had been made than before. What was my astonishment when I believed that I saw a slight respiratory motion. I looked again, and saw that I was not mistaken. I at once used friction and irritants, and in an hour and a half the respiration increased. The patient opened her eyes, and, struck with the funereal paraphernalia around her, returned to consciousness, and said, 'I am too young to die.'" All this was followed by a ten hours' sleep. Convalescence proceeded rapidly, and the girl became free from all her nervous troubles. During her crisis she heard everything. She quoted some Latin words that Mr. Franck had used. Her most fearful agony had been to hear the preparations for her burial without being able to get rid of her torpor. Medical dictionaries are full of anecdotes of this nature, but I shall cite but two more.

On the 10th of November, 1812, during the fatal retreat from Russia, Commandant Tascher, desiring to bring back to France the body of his general, who had been killed by a bullet, and who had been buried since the day before, disinterred him, and, upon putting him into a landau, and noticing that he was still breathing, brought him to life again by dint of care. A long time afterward this same general was one of the pall bearers at the funeral obsequies of the aide-de-camp who had buried him. In 1826 a young priest returned to life at the moment the bishop of the diocese was pronouncing the _De Profundis_ over his body. Forty years afterward, this priest, who had become Cardinal Donnett, preached a feeling sermon upon the danger of premature burial.

I trust I have now sufficiently prepared the mind of the reader for an examination of the phenomena of the voluntary suspension of life that I shall now treat of.

The body of an animal may be compared to a machine that converts the food that it receives into motion. It receives nothing, it will produce nothing; but there is no reason why it should get out of order if it is not deteriorated by external agents. The legendary rustic who wanted to accustom his ass to go without food was therefore theoretically wrong only because he at the same time wanted the animal to work. The whole difficulty consists in breaking with old habits. To return to the comparison that we just made, we shall run the risk of exploding the boiler of a steam engine if we heat it or cool it abruptly, but we can run it very slowly and for a very long time with but very little fuel. We may even preserve a little fire under the ashes, and this, although it may not be capable of setting the parts running, will suffice later on to revivify the fireplace after it has been charged anew with fuel.

We have recently had the example of Dr. Tanner, who went forty days without any other nourishment than water. Not very long ago Liedovine de Schiedam, who had been bedridden for twenty years, affirmed that she had taken no food for eight of them. It is said that Saint Catharine of Sienna gradually accustomed herself to do without food, and that she lived twenty years in total abstinence. We know of several examples of prolonged sleep during which the sleeper naturally took no nourishment. In his Magic Disquisitions, Delvis cites the case of a countryman who slept for an entire autumn and winter. Pfendler relates that a certain young and hysterical woman fell twice into a deep slumber which each time lasted six months. In 1883 an _enceinte_ woman was found asleep on a bench in the Grand Armee Avenue. She was taken to the Beaujon Hospital, where she was delivered a few days after while still asleep, and it was not till the end of three months that she could be awakened from her lethargy. At this very moment, at Tremeille, a woman named Marguerite Bouyenvalle is sleeping a sleep that has lasted nearly a year, during which the only food that she has had is a few drops of soup daily.

What is more remarkable, Dr. Fournier says in his Dictionary of Medical Sciences that he knew of a distinguished writer at Paris, who sometimes went for months at a time without taking anything but emollient drinks, while at the same time living along like other people.