NEW ELEMENTS IN INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. Under charge of CHARLES E. JONES, M. D., Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, College of Physicians and Surgeons of San Francisco. Liquid Air in the Sick Room.-In Berlin two litres (0.528 gallon) of liquid air is delivered at a time for about twenty-five cents. In a recent issue of Energie, it is stated that the receptacles are made of glass with double walls, the space between being filled with an insulating material, the walls being silvered to prevent the radiation of heat and the whole enveloped in an insulating substance. These receptacles retain their temperature for fourteen days. Several drops of the liquid in a glass of water produces freezing, and it is intended for such uses as refreshing drinks, and in improving the condition of the air in sick rooms. New Method of Preparing Laughing Gas.-The methods usually employed for preparing nitrogen monoxide from ammonium nitrate yield a gas containing appreciable quantities of chlorine, nitrogen and the other oxides of nitrogen. In order to obtain a continuous stream of the pure dry gas Alex. P. Ledoff gives the following method: A large tube of difficultly fusible glass sealed at one end is filled with a mixture of three parts of dry sea sand and two parts ammonium nitrate dried at 105°, which same is kept in position by an asbestos plug. The end of the tube is closed by a cork through which passes a delivery tube with tap. A small aluminum box, fitted with a thermometer and serving as air bath, is arranged to slide along the tube. The back end of the tube is first heated-the best temperature to employ is 260°-285°; when all the air has been expelled from the tube the gas is passed, first through aqueous ferrous sulphate or sodium hydrate solution, and then through an emulsion of dry ferrous sulphate in concentrated sulphuric acid; it is then dry and pure. Plaster of Paris "Setting."-Chas. Cloez, Bull. Soc. Chem., May, 1903.- Anhydrous calcium sulphate when placed in its own weight of water, raises the temperature of the latter by 14° to 220; the temperature afterwards falls steadily for about ten minutes, then remains stationary for a short time, and finally rises to a higher level than the temper ature produced immediately on admixture. The temperature changes in the order indicated are regarded as due to hydration, solution of the hydrate formed and setting of the supersaturated solution produced. The Effect of Iron and Arsenic on Blood Changes After Hemorrhages. Journal Physiol., 1903, 29, 18-38.-Hemorrhage produces a general deterioration of the blood; the hemoglobin is more diminished than the red corpuscles; and increase of leucocytes occurs mainly of the polymorphonuclear kind; there is an increase of serum-albumin, of fibrin, and of the rate of coagulation. If the hemorrhage occurs during the administration of inorganic iron, the main difference noted from the foregoing is that although the red corpuscles are diminished the hemoglobin is raised beyond its original value. If organic iron is given the change is the same but not so pronounced. If arsenic is given hemorrhage produces the usual changes except that the leucocytes are diminished. If both iron and arsenic are given the deterioration of the blood is less when hemorrhage occurs than when either drug is given separately. The experiments were made on dogs. Disappearance of Carbon Monoxide from the Blood of Persons Poisoned by that Gas.-LEON GARNIER, Compt. Ren. Soc. Biol.-Several cases of undoubted carbon monoxide poisoning are described, most of which ended fatally. The remarkable fact noted in some of these is that the usual tests for carbon monoxide hemoglobin failed. No adequate explanation of this is forthcoming. TRANSLATIONS. From the Russian, by GEORGE I. BLUHM, M. D., The Premature Detachment of the Normally Attached Placenta.-Dr. Gruning points out that the diagnosis of a premature detachment of a normally attached. placenta is made on the following symptoms: The first symptom is an insignificant uterine hemorrhage in the absence of a tumor, placenta pra-viæ or rupturæ uteriquickly developed anemia, which can be explained only by the uterine hemorrhage-the uterus enlarges and assumes a spherical shape, gets equally elastic and prevents the feeling of part of the foetus by palpitation,-the death of the foetus and a weak parturition. Treatment of Acne Vulgaris by Hot Running Steam.-Dr. Lieberson (Odessa) cured 56 consecutive cases of acne by hot running steam, and all of them were completely and permanently cured, only in three of them the treatment had to be repeated. Therefore the author concludes that, contrary to the opinion of Hebra, not tempus, but vapor veros curat. Vulvo-Vaginitis in Children, Specific in Fully 80 per cent.-Dr. Dukelsky is of the opinion that the affection in children described in the text-books under the names of "whites," "fluor albus," "leucorrhea," etc., is in 80 per cent of all the cases gonorrheal vulvo-vaginitis— vulvo-vaginitis infectio sa specifica s. gonorrhoica. In the last 20 per cent we meet with all forms of vulvo-vaginitis, either of an infectious or of a simple nature, and in the acute or chronic form. The general health (constitution) of children does not play any role in the production of vulvo-vaginitis. In the majority of cases the disease is transferred to the children by the mothers. Cases of infection through examinations and in general through indirect infection are marked by a very severe course, sometimes with a very high temperature and with pronounced complications. It may also be transferred from the mother to the child during parturition. The inflammation of the Bartholin glands are met with only in the acute forms of gonorrheal vulvo-vaginitis. In the absence of inflammation of the Bartholin glands it is possible to differentiate acute gonorrheal forms of vulvo-vaginitis from the simple forms only bacteriologically, as the clinical picture is so similar in both. The same can be said about the prolonged forms of gonorrheal and simple vulvo-vaginitis. The origin of the non-gonorrheal forms of vulvo-vaginitis in children needs further investigation. Perhaps infection through masturbation should be borne in mind (translator). For the fight against vulvo-vaginitis in children it is necessary to raise the moral standard of the masses, so that the elementary knowledge of hygiene and cleanliness should be more widespread. It is also necessary to disseminate the idea about the contagiousness and dangers of "whites." PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL WINSLOW ANDERSON, A. M., M. D., M. R. C. P. LOND., etc. W. F. SOUTHARD, A. M., M. D., Managing Editor. COLLABORATORS. O. F. BUCKLEY, B.A., M.D., L.R.C.P.Edin., etc. H. D'ARCY POWER, L.S.A.Eng., L.R.C.P., Ire. P. C. REMONDINO, M.D. GEO. C. MACDONALD, M.D., F.R C.S. Ed. W. E. TAYLOR, M D. W L. ADAMS, M.D. CARL C. HANSEN, M.D. GEORGE H. POWERS, A.M., M.D. J. H. DAVISSON M.D. C. A. RUGGLES, M.D. THOS. MORFFEW, D.D.S. FRANK HOWARD PAYNE, M,D. A. W. MORTON, A.B., M.D. CHAS. E. JONES, A.B., M.D. F. F. KNORP, M.D. WM. J. JACKSON, Ph.G., M.D. WM. A. BRYANT, M.D., D.D.S, WALTER F. LEWIS, D.D.S. H. N. ROWELL, M.D. CLARK L. ABBOTT, M.D. ROBERT E. O'CONNELL, D.D.S. CHAS. W. MILLS, A.B, M.D., D.D.S. B. F. WILLIAMS M.D. WILLIAM BURFIEND, D.D.S. JOHN M. STOWELL, M.D. BERTHA WAGNER-STARK, M.D. J. H. SEYMOU6, M.D. CALVIN W. KNOWLES, D.D.S., M.D. CORYDON B. ROOT, M.D., D.D.S. J. C. HENNESSEY, D.D.S. The Editors are not responsible for the views of contributors. All matters relating to the editorial and business departments should be addressed to the PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL, 1025 Sutter St., San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO, NOVEMBER, 1903. Editorial. THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS VISITS THE LABORATORIES OF THE NATIONAL PHARMACY COMPANY. The graduating class of the College of Physicians and Surgeons recently made its annual visit to the laboratories of the National Pharmacy Company in San Francisco, that the students might see how pharmaceutical preparations, afterward to be used in their practice as physicians, are made on a large scale. Arriving at the laboratories, the character and object of the National Pharmacy Company was first explained, after which the various departments were inspected and the methods employed observed. The class was told that the National Pharmacy Company is an association of physicians and pharmacists having as its object the practice of pharmacy as a profession, in contra-distinction to the commercial business commonly known as manufacturing phar Company is therefore macy. The National Pharmacy organized on a professional basis: processes and methods of preparation are open to the profession, and the business is carried on in conformity with professional and scientific requirements. The standards and processes of the United States Pharmacopoeia are literally followed, so that products marketed under pharmacopoeial names comply with the tests of the pharmacopoeia as to their identity, character, quality and strength. This insures uniformity in therapeutic effects, and does away with the necessity of pharmacists carrying more than one brand of pharmaceuticals in stock; for all that the medical profession has a right to demand of pharmacists is that they shall fill their prescriptions for products bearing pharmacopoeial names with those manufactured in accordance with the United States Pharmacopoeia. The class was much interested in the scientific departHere is accumulated information on the subject of drugs, including their properties and uses, the same being classified and arranged by the card-index system for convenience of reference. This bureau of information is open to the medical and pharmaceutical professions, and physicians and pharmacists are already taking advantage of the facilities to obtain the latest knowledge in regard to the materia medica. Here the drugs and chemicals purchased by the company are subjected to chemical assay before they are used in the making of preparations. Here also, the finished preparations are standardized to insure uniformity in active principles. It was easily recognized that the standardization of the material used for the manufacture of pills, tablets, and other pharmaceutical preparations necessarily gives character to the preparations themselves, so that the leaven of standardization thus leavens the whole lump. The importance of standardizing pharmaceutical preparations was in this manner impressed upon the graduates entering the practice of medicine, who were thus taught to realize that if physicians expect to succeed in the treatment of diseases by drugs they must first know that the preparations they employ are made in compliance with authority. Much interest was also displayed in the methods for making medicines palatable. The manufacture of elixirs, |