tions were repeated at intervals of three or four days, and complete recovery was obtained within three weeks.

Since that time, Dr. Cavazzani has had occasion to prove the favorable effects of potassium oxalate in quite a number of phlegmonous affections, as well as in two women suffering from phlegmatia alba dolens, who recovered rapidly under the influence of from ten to twelve injections of 2 or 3 cubic centimeters in all, repeated twice in one case, three times in the other.

Among the cases treated by this method was one of inguinal abscess in a man, who had been operated upon for a hernia three days previously. Eight injections of altogether 2 cubic centimeters of the oxalate solution were administered at once around the inflammatory focus, with the result that all the alarming local symptoms had subsided on the following day, leaving only slight suppuration of two sutures.

Lastly, it is worthy of note that these injections of potassium oxalate have never, in Dr. Cavazzani's experience, given rise to the slightest symptom of intoxication.-Medical Week.

HABITUAL CONSTIPATION.

The causes of habitual constipation are: Heredity; the habit of suppressing the desire; unsuitable diet-too abundant, deficient in water, too easily absorbed, or insufficient in variety; sedentary habits (although obstinate habitual constipation may occur even in those who lead an active life); disturbances in the circulation (heart disease, mechanical pressure, pregnancy); displacement of the bowel; intestinal adhesions. The treatment is given as follows: (1) dietetic, (2) physico-mechanical, (3) medicinal. In the first method, such foods should be given as are known to increase peristalsis. The "physico-mechanical" includes suitable massage (often of great value), electricity, and enemata. The disadvantage of enemata is that ultimately small quantities of fluid do not suffice, and large quantities over-distend the intestine and become useless. Regular attempts at defecation with slight pressure are recommended. Medicinal treatment is discussed under two groups, mild and more powerful purgatives. An efficient rhubarb preparation is very useful. Calomel is very useful in children. Castor oil is unsuitable for constant use. Large injections of olive oil are of value.-Berlin, Klinik.

LIQUID AIR AND ITS USES.*

Air is the vapor of a liquid, and acts in its properties like the vapor of other liquids; for it liquefies at a pressure of 573 pounds per square inch, with the temperature reduced to 220 degrees Fahr., and upon gradual release of pressure commences to boil at 294 pounds pressure, with a falling temperature, reaching -312 degrees Fahr., when the pressure is entirely released, at which temperature it will maintain its stability exposed to the atmosphere for some little time, according to the quantity under trial, and holding its intensely low temperature by its own evaporation until the whole is evaporated.

The commercial production of liquid air is a very important discovery, and the future question of economy in motive power may be intimately associated with this liquid. Compressed air, at pressures ranging from 1,000 pounds upward, is conducted from an air receiver through a small pipe, is refrigerated to expel its moisture, and is then conducted into the apparatus which liquefies it completely, without the use of chemicals of any kind, and it flows from this apparatus in a stream about the size of a lead pencil (in the apparatus of Linde) into a glass insulated receptacle containing about two gallons. This receptacle was filled in a very short time. Of course, being in an open vessel, liquid air has no pressure, but its temperature is approximately 385 degrees Fahr., or 445 degrees below the atmosphere at 60 degrees Fahr. Inasmuch as it boils rapidly on the surface, owing to its absorption of heat from the atmosphere, it looks like carbonated milk on the surface, but upon dipping some of it out in a glass and observing its color through the glass, it has very much the appearance of ordinary water, and about the same weight.

Its temperature is very deceptive, for as it runs from the condenser one may allow it to trickle over the fingers for a short space of time, and it appears to have the atmospheric temperature. The truth, however, of the matter is that it does not come in contact with the fingers at all; the hand being something like 480 degrees warmer than the liquid, it throws the liquid into a spheroidal state and interposes between it and the finger a film of atmospheric air. The sensation is very much like pushing one's hand into a bag of feathers or into a mercury bath, allowing, of course, for the difference in weight between the mercury and the liquid air. If, however, the hand is immersed in the liquid a sufficient time to establish a contact, the flesh would be burned, the same as if it were exposed to 440 degrees of heat, measured above the atmospheric temperature. If a test * Compressed Air, condensed for Public Opinion.

tube of 1 inches diameter, having a couple of pounds of mercury in the bottom, is immersed in liquid air, the mercury will be frozen solid in a few seconds, and may be hammered out and otherwise manipulated the same as lead. An alcohol thermometer of large size will be frozen instantly upon being immersed in the liquid.

A tablespoonful of liquid air poured on about a fluid ounce of whisky will freeze it at once into flat scales, giving the whole the appearance and color of cyanide of potassium. This may be emptied out on a table, and will remain frozen in that condition for fully five minutes. One thing that impresses one is that, while all molecular motion is practically arrested at this temperature, the odor is perfectly distinct, showing that these particles which stimulate the sense of smell are active and independent of the temperature. A handkerchief of either silk, linen, or cotton, saturated with the liquid, will be charred and destroyed just the same as if it were put in an oven and browned, though no change of color is apparent. Its evaporation is quite slow, and it may be carried about for a number of hours in an open vessel without entirely disappearing. It probably represents a compression of about seven hundred atmospheres, and would, therefore, in a confined space and at 60 degrees temperature, represent a pressure of somewhere from ten to twelve thousand pounds to the square inch.

Liquefying air is not a new thing; it has been performed by exerting enormous pressure or by freezing air to an unusual degree, or by a combination of pressure with refrigeration. There are so many uses to which liquefied air can be put that scientists hardly know where its usefulness will end if it can be produced at a low rate of cost in commercial quantities. Among other advantages, air in the portable, cheap form of a liquid, as it passes back to its ordinary state, can be used for illuminating. purposes by mixing its escaping gases with atmospheric air in certain definite proportions. Moreover, as a driving force in the way of detonators, or explosive material, to drive engines, liquid air is obviously a power that can be, under given conditions, profitably applied.

It

Fluid air costs about 10 marks ($2.25) for five cubic meters, reduced. The new method is the invention of Professor Linde, of Munich. produces the liquid for 10 pfennigs (two and one-quarter cents) for five cubic meters, and it yields the product either as a gas or fluid, as one wishes. This is one of the most ingenious pieces of mechanism recently known; its chief feature is its economy of working, for it uses air to refrigerate air. After the pump has worked for a certain time, one turns a cock and liquid air runs out at a temperature of 273 degrees below zero. In Professor Linde's method, an air-pun.p of five horse power condenses air to a pressure of 200 atmospheres; this air passes down a spiral tube and is let out in a chamber, causing great cold; then it rises and

passes on the outside of the spiral tube, bathing it and thus cooling the new air that has been pumped into the tube to take its place. This cooled air follows on into the chamber, expands and again lowers its temperature, then passes on up around the spiral tube; but as its temperature has become much lower, the new air in the tube is still further refrigerated. This circulating process goes on, until the new air pumped into the tube reaches the expansion chamber at a temperature of 273 degrees below zero, when it drops into the chamber in the form of liquid. Thus the air, steadily cooled, is made to refrigerate the newly pumped air more and more, until the necessary degree of cold is attained. Another idea, which may or

may not be an improvement, is to have the pump and all parts of the machine kept very low in temperature.-Medical and Surgical Reporter.

NEWS AND NOTES.

DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING SPECIMENS OF BLOOD.

The skin covering the tip of the finger is thoroughly cleansed and then pricked with a clean needle deeply enough to cause several drops of blood to exude. Two large drops are then placed on the glass slide, one near either end, and allowed to dry without being spread out on the surface of the slide. After they have dried, the slide is placed in the holder and returned in the addressed envelope to a culture station, or mailed to the laboratory. The blank giving the history of the case must be filled out in full and forwarded with each specimen. The data thus obtained are for record.

DIRECTIONS FOR OBTAINING SPECIMENS OF SERUM FROM BLISTERS.

The shield (designed to protect the blister from rupture), is stripped from its protecting gauze and applied to the skin somewhere on the anterior portion of the body. The pieces of canthos plaster is then fixed within its center. After 10 to 12 hours, the shield is removed and one of the ends of the small glass tube accompanying the outfit is introduced into the blister. The tube, both ends of which should be open, should be held so that the end inserted is higher than the other, to allow the serum to run into it. After the tube has been nearly filled, it is removed and the ends sealed by holding them a moment in a gas flame. Care must be observed not to heat the middle portion of the tube, and thus coagulate the serum. The tube so prepared is then placed in the wooden box and returned in the addressed envelope to a culture station, or mailed to the laboratory.

A report on the result of the examination will be mailed to the attending physician on the following day.

HYDROZONE

A

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IS THE MOST POWERFUL ANTISEPTIC AND PUS DESTROYER.
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2

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Glycozone is put up only in 4-oz., 8-oz. and 16-oz. bottles bearing a yellow label, white and black letters, red and blue border with my signature.

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