iQis] War Notes 45 1 



incapacitated, so that there need be no difficulty in collecting an 

 adequate supply. 



Rapid whitening of the hair after explosion of a mine. 

 "At one of the recent sessions of the Societe med. des höpitaux, 

 Paris, Dr. Lebar reported the case of a soldier, aged 33, who, hav- 

 ing been blown into the air by the explosion of a mine, next day had 

 locks of white hair on the left side of his head. The decoloration 

 of the hairs was complete from base to extremity. The longest as 

 well as the shortest were white and there was not a brown one 

 among them. All the hairs that became suddenly white are still 

 firmly implanted. It was suggested that the general nervous shock 

 caused by the explosion of the mine set in motion the medullary 

 cells of the hair, the pigmentophagic röle of which has been shown 

 by Metchnikoff." Paris letter: Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 1915, 

 Ixv, p. 183. 



The so-called new antiseptic. "Recently the newspapers 

 have contained announcements of a new antiseptic or germicide that 

 has proved, or is to prove, of great value in the treatment of the 

 wounded in the present war. Credit for its discovery is given to 

 Drs. Carrel and Dakin. 



" The antiseptic referred to is that which Dr. Dakin,''' of the 

 Herter Laboratory, N. Y. City — now serving as bacteriologist in a 

 war hosp. at Compiegne, France — announced in a paper read before 

 the Acad. des sciences, Paris. It is made by the well-known process 

 O'f adding sodium carbonate to a sol. of chlorinated lime. The 

 mixture is thoroughly shaken, and after half an hour the liquid is 

 siphoned off from the precipitate of calcium carbonate and filtered 

 through cotton. To this clear liquid,- sufficient boric acid is added 

 to make the preparation neutral or acid, the amount required being 

 determined by titration with phenolthalein. Such a sol. was found 

 to kill staphylococci in two hours. 



" According to the British Med. Jour.^ about a year ago Prof. 

 Cohen, of the Univ. of Leeds, entered into communication with 

 Dr. Dakin, a former Student, regarding research on antiseptics for 

 surgical use. The arrangement was that the substances elaborated 



''Dakin: Presse med. (society proceedings), Aug. 5, 1915. 



8 Research in Antiseptics, Brit. Med. Jour., Aug. 14, 1915, p. 261. 



