566 Biochemical News, Notes and Comment [June 



Rcsuscitation after electric shock. The Commission on Resus- 

 citation after electric shock (page 495), organized on the initiative 

 of the National Electric Light Association, and having for its pur- 

 pose the study of electric shock and the preparation of rules for first 

 aid in cases of electric accident, has prepared the results of its work 

 for presentation to the public. There is a simple chart to be posted 

 in all factories and electric shops, and a more detailed set of rules 

 embodied in a sixteen-page booklet to be carried in the pocket of 

 the electrician. These represent the commission's findings on the 

 question of producing artificial respiration in emergency cases. The 

 commission will also publish a report on mechanical means of pro- 

 ducing artificial respiration, and it will present its judgment on the 

 insufflation method advocated by Dr. S. J. Meltzer. 



Synthetic riihher. Prof. W. H. Perkin lately read a paper 

 before the Society of Chemical Industry, announcing that rubber has 

 been synthesized and that synthetic rubber can be placed on the 

 market at a price to compete with plantation rubber. In 1909 Mr. 



E. Haiford Strange, of Messrs. Strange and Graham, technical re- 

 search chemists, directed his Organization of chemists, headed by Dr. 



F. E. Matthews, to the problem of the synthetic production of 

 rubber. In July, 191 o, Dr. Matthews left some metallic sodium in 

 contact with isoprene, and in the following September found that 

 the isoprene had turned into a solid mass of rubber. On further 

 investigation it was found that sodium is a general polymerizing 

 agent for such substances. The first annoimcement of this discovery 

 was made by Prof. Carl Harries, of Kiel University, who made the 

 same discovery independently, about three months later. Dr. 

 Matthews suggested a method for preparing isoprene in which 

 acetone was one of the raw materials, and, later, one in which fusel 

 oil was the starting point. Professor Perkin was then asked to 

 coöperate. Subsequently Sir William Ramsay joined the group as 

 Consultant. Professor Fernbach, of the Pasteur Institute, after 

 eighteen months of laborious work, discovered a fermentation proc- 

 ess for the commercial production of fusel oil from starchy ma- 

 terials. This process is now so satisfactory that the higher alcohols 

 can be obtained at a cost of not more than £30 per ton, thus pro- 

 viding cheap material in abundance for rubber synthesis. 



