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How Anesthetics Annul Pain NE of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century was made in this country away back in the forties. This was the discovery of the pain-annulling property of sulphuric ether, the demonstration of which was made at the Massachusetts General Hospital by Dr. William T. G. Morton in 1846.

Dr. Horace Wells, of Hartford, Connecticut, had used nitrous oxide ("laughing gas") in dentistry even earlier; and there were other claimants to a share in the honor of this momentous discovery, but they were all Americans. The application of chloroform to the same use was made subsequently by an Englishman, Dr. Simpson; but of course this utilization of a second drug did not for a moment rank in importance with the first demonstration made by Morton.

It is somewhat surprising that the three drugs used at the outset, when anesthesia was first introduced, should still hold their own as practically the only general anesthetics in common use among surgeons. Cocaine has, indeed, been introduced as a local anesthetic, and, recently, injections of stovaine into the spinal canal have been utilized in selected cases; but for the general purposes of the surgeon, ether and choloroform are still the standard anesthetics as they were sixty years ago.

There has been great progress, however, in the method of administering the drugs, in particular, Dr. Gwathmey's recent use of heated vapors of ether and chloroform supplemented with pure oxygen. But while the technique of the use of anesthetics has been thus perfected, the method of their action has remained a mystery. New light has now been thrown on the subject, how ever, by the researches of Professor Max Verworn, Director of the Physiological Laboratories at Göttingen, who announced the results of his investigations in a recent lecture before the New York Academy of Medicine.

Professor Verworn ascribed the action of the anesthetics to their peculiar affinity for

the cells of the gray matter of the brain cortex. It is familiar knowledge that when the blood is shut off from the brain, unconsciousness immediately results. Experiments show that pressure on the large arteries in the neck may produce unconsciousness in a few seconds.

Although the anesthetic does not shut the blood off from the brain, it produces an equivalent effect by so combining with the brain cells that their affinity for oxygen is temporarily abolished.

But when the oxygen supply of a cell is shut off, the cell quickly develops products that are virtually poisons. The province of oxygen is to combine with these poisons, thus neutralizing them, and to carry them to the lungs where they are exhaled. Unless such removal of the waste products can be constantly carried out, the cell cannot functionate normally. And inasmuch as the normal functioning of the cell of the brain cortex (outer layer of gray matter) is essential to the manifestation of consciousness, it follows that when the brain cells are clogged by the anesthetic, consciousness is eliminated.

When an anesthetic is inhaled for a long time, other cells than the nerve cells gradually become involved, and the time will come when the tissues as a whole are so vitiated as to cause death. As administered by the surgeon, however, the quantity of anesthetic is regulated, so that only the brain cells are pronouncedly involved. It is the peculiar and not very clearly explained affinity of the brain cells for the drug that makes the practical application of anesthetics possible.

Professor Verworn explains that the condition of anesthesia as thus interpreted is quite different from the condition of normal sleep. In the latter, the supply of oxygen is not withheld from the brain cells, it is only restricted in amount, chiefly through a general reduction of the intracranial blood supply, and the waste products that have accumulated through hours of activity are removed.

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The Price

By

George Broadhurst

husband the same leniency This is the question that which is given below. It

Has a woman, when she enters into marriage, the right to claim from her with regard to her past that he expects from her with regard to his? is brought up in George Broadhurst's play, The Price, the story of is the old story of a woman's vain attempt to bury her sin as a man is allowed to bury his

NTO the life of Stannard Dole, an artist whose pictures do not sell because they lack something, comes the gifted Ethel Toscani, a young woman

whose mother was English and whose father was a cultured Italian of the Bohemian type. Dole, who had laid aside his art for literature, has taken up painting again; and now his pictures are selling to such good effect that he has become famous and prosperous.

Despite the high station that the artist occupies, he has never been able to impress Mrs. Dole-a woman in caliber the very opposite of Ethel Toscani-with the necessity or the desirability of living as a lady should. She was born to household drudgery in her mother's boarding-house, and in housework she finds the summum bonum of life. She is dowdy, slovenly in intellect, unesthetic; deadly materialistic in a sordid and spiritless way. These qualities are all brought out in the opening scene, in which she is showing Susan, the new housemaid, how to do the work. Ethel Toscani, who is Dole's secretary, is present also, and her sympathy for the new maid, who has just come out of the hospital and is far from strong, is sharply contrasted with Mrs. Dole's harshness.

Susan goes out, and a moment later Stannard Dole, a well-groomed, clean-cut man of thirty-nine, comes in.

The jarring note between husband and wife is at once sounded. Mrs. Dole asks

solicitously about the artist's breakfasthas it been well prepared? It has; but Dole discounts material considerations in the contemplation of his wife's untidy appearance. He reproaches her for it sharply, and the dialogue becomes so unpleasant that Ethel finally leaves the room. To his wife's contention that she is not more attractive because she has lost all charm in trying to make his home comfortable, Dole replies that, on the contrary, her loss of charm is due to her own carelessness and laziness; she simply has not made any effort to keep her youth and whatever good looks she had or to cultivate her mind by an interest in intellectual pursuits. Mrs. Dole retorts by hinting her suspicion that the change in her husband, which has enabled him to become a successful artist, is due to some cause that she does not yet understand, but that she intends to ferret it out. Dole tries to explain it as a natural development, but his wife is unconvinced.

Mrs. Dole leaves, and the reëntrance of Ethel Toscani puts the spectator in possession of the secret that she and Dole have been more to each other than employer and employee, more than artist and secretary. Dole addresses Ethel as "Dear," and attempts to embrace her; but the girl points warningly to the door through which Mrs. Dole has just gone.

Dole-This has got to end. She must agree to a divorce.

Ethel She won't.

Dole-But when I tell her that I love some one else—

Ethel She will never release you merely that you may be happy. Why should she? You haven't thought of her side. I have.

Dole-You talk almost as though you didn't want me to be free. Is that the reason for the change that has come over you lately?

Ethel-Please! It would be easier if she were younger and more attractive. She might hope then to find a man who would love her. What chance has she now?

Fortunately for Ethel, interruption comes in the shape of a call from Professor Dameroff, a mutual friend, a critic and a philosopher of sorts. He is a Russian, with a Russian's belief in fatality. He is a man of the world, with a broad point of view for its laws of morality and for those who transgress them. He was a friend of Ethel's father, and throughout the play he acts as her comforter and adviser, and finally as her confidant. The Professor has come in to see Dole's new picture the triumph of Love over Ambition. The short scene in which he expresses his admiration for it is interrupted by a call on the telephone, which reveals the fact that Dole has called in the services of a brilliant young surgeon, who has recently returned from an extended stay abroad, and that the artist is to undergo an examination, probably preliminary to an operation. The surgeon is Ethan Bristol, and the mention of his name is greatly disturbing to Ethel. The thought that Bristol is to operate on Dole seems to obsess her.

Events move more rapidly now. In a scene between Ethel and the Professor, the fact is brought out that Ethel no longer loves Dole, but that she loves Bristol, the surgeon, and has promised to marry him.

Soon afterward the surgeon arrives, and there is some talk regarding the nature of Dole's ailment. Dr. Bristol declares that there is slight danger, since ninety-three per cent. of such operations are successful. He expects to make a thorough examination of the artist, and then probably to perform an operation for mastoiditis. Presently, the Professor makes some excuse to leave Dr. Bristol and Ethel alone. Ethel immediately goes to the Doctor, who takes her in his arms and kisses her.

He then pleads with her to let him announce their engagement. When is this secrecy to end, he asks; even though there is no harm in it, it is hateful to him because it savors of deception. Why should they not meet openly as lovers instead of as mere acquaintances. Ethel begs him to wait just a little longer.

Ethel-We've been perfectly happy with just a clasp of the hand which no one saw, a few whispered words that no one heard, a stolen kiss-like this—(kisses him). That's romance. That's fairyland. Once we leave it, the gates close forever. Let us stay in it a little longer, dear, just a little.

Doctor-Very well. This is Thursday-
I won't announce our engagement till Mon-
day. But on Monday, I shall.
Ethel (Alarmed) Monday?
Doctor-Yes.

Ethel-If I should-forbid it?
Doctor-Do you?

Ethel-If I should?

Doctor-I should think that there must be some special reason and I should want to know what it is. Do you forbid it? I'm right, dear. You know I am. We love each other. You're to be my wife. To keep it secret any longer seems like deceitnot intentional or wrong deceit-I know that at the same time I can't help a feeling that there's something underhanded about it and that goes against the grain. So we'll say Monday, shall we, dear? (Pause) Shall we?

Ethel-Yes, we'll say Monday.

After Bristol has gone to his patient, Ethel confesses her fears to Professor Dameroff. She tells him that Bristol is determined to announce their engagement on Monday. The Professor advises her to tell Ethan the truth about her relations with Dole, but she refuses. She is afraid that he will never forgive her. She is praying for some means of escape from her dilemma.

Ethel-There must be a way out-there must be!

Professor-Fate nearly always finds a means of escape, if one is willing to pay her price, but she drives a hard bargain, and she exacts the last penny.

Ethel I'd pay any price she asked, and pay it willingly! Any price! Any!

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The Doctor, returning from his patient, interrupts them. He declares that an operation is necessary, but that Dole is in no condition to bear it. His heart is weak, and any sudden shock would kill him.

Then follows a scene between Ethel and Dole. He declares that he is going to reveal the situation to his wife that very day. She pleads with him frantically.

Ethel-You shan't-I tell you!

Dole-Why shan't I? It is my one chance and I am going to take it. Why should I be miserable for the rest of my life. I am entitled to my happiness and I'm going to get it if I can.

(Dole's announcement that he intends to tell his wife that day for the time drives from Ethel's head the thought of the shock against which the doctor has warned her)

Ethel Am I entitled to mine?
Dole-Yes.

You won't stand in the way of my happiness, will you?

Dole-You love-you- (With a gasp he sinks in chair)

Ethel-Dead! and I have (She stops terrified and uncertain what course to follow. Pause. She goes to the door and starts to call Ethan, but only says) Eth- No, I couldn't explain! I couldn't explain!

ACT II

More than a year has elapsed when the action of the second act begins. The rising curtain discloses the living room in the home of Dr. Bristol, to whom Ethel has been married for some months. A guest for the evening is present in the person of Professor Dameroff, and a lively conversation ensues between him and Florence Bromley, a lovely young girl of about twenty, for whom Dr. Bristol has made a

Ethel-Even though to get it I sacrifice place in his home upon the death of Flor

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Ethel-Then I will take it.
Dole Of course you will.

Ethel-But not with you, Stannard. (Pause)

Dole (Puzzled) Not with me?

Ethel No; I can't take my happiness with you-because-I don't love you. Dole-Ethel!

Ethel-I don't love you. I never did. I only thought that I did. But I do love another man, and I am going to have my happiness with him. Now do you understand?

Dole-(Gasping) You love-you-love(The shock of which the Doctor spoke has come) Ethel-I don't want to hurt you-you know that-but I must tell you the truth now. I love Ethan Bristol and have promised to marry him. (Ethel, not realizing what she has done, thinks that Dole's speech and manner result only from the revelation she has just made)

Dole-It's a lie!

Ethel-It's the truth, Stannard. He is going to announce our engagement on Monday.

Dole-E-E-Ethan

Ethel-Yes, I love him with all my heart and soul, with every breath I draw, with every drop of blood that is in my body!

ence's father. Susan also appears, installed as maid to Ethel (Mrs. Bristol), for whom she expresses the deepest devotion.

Dr. Bristol is out, answering a professional call. Presently Ethel appears, Florence being seated at the piano in the music room, which can be seen through the open doors at the rear.

Professor Dameroff suggests to Ethel that it was generous of her to admit Miss Bromley to her home so soon after her marriage. He has known brides who would not have been so generous.

Ethel Why not?

Professor-We Russians have a proverb which says, "There should be no third in the nest till the fledging comes."

Ethel-When I think of what love has meant to others and when I consider what it has brought to me-when I think that to some it has meant untold misery, while to me it has brought such wonderful happiness, then I realize how fortunate I am—and I wonder-I wonder if Fate will demand her price.

Professor-Why think of such a thing? Ethel-You said she always did. Do you believe that?

Professor-I believe there is something— call it what you will-that, at times, takes from our fingers the threads of our lives and weaves them into the universal pattern which it has designed.

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Mrs. Dole-Oh, I know you're making a lot of money and that I could set down in a fine dress and fold my hands, but I simply can't do it.

Mr. Dole-I suppose not.

Mrs. Dole-I'm four years older than you are, just four, and I look at least ten.

Dole-And whose fault is it?

Mrs. Dole-Mine. I've done it trying to make you comfortable

Ethel If this should be one of the times? Professor-How could it be? There is but one person through whom Fate could work.

Ethel Mrs. Dole.

In the passages that follow, Ethel betrays the tenderest affection for Florence, whom she teases at length on the score of being hard to suit, so far as men are concerned. Although she has introduced Florence to all the eligible young men she knows, declares Ethel, none of them calls more than once or twice. True, there was one, Ambrose Lorrimer, who called with promising regularity for a while. Then, of a sudden, he too, like the rest, stopped coming. Ethel wants to know what is the reason, and Florence replies airily that she has her ideal, and then

begs off from being teased. Ultimately, Dr. Bristol appears; and then, with the introduction of the subject of a new housekeeper, the happy domestic atmosphere becomes surcharged with the air of impending tragedy.

Ethel, it seems, has found one tiny gnat in her very large jar of domestic honeyhousehold accounts are a bore and an enigma to her. Her husband has observed this, and now he surprises Ethel with the announcement that he will relieve her of all that in the future: he has engaged a housekeeper for her. Ethel expresses the greatest delight and can hardly wait to learn details. Her joy changes to utter dismay a moment later, when Dr. Bristol discloses the identity of the new member of the household -Mrs. Dole-and follows this up with the

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