General 227 



greatly enlarged diam. and increased length than in the electr. 

 heated i)^ in. tube. The conditions favorable for gasoline produc. 

 are shown to be the same in the larger tubes as in the small tube, 

 namely, a temp. of approx, 500 to 575 °C. and a pressure of 250 to 

 300 Ib. per sq. in. The gasoHne process, therefore, can justly be 

 considered as a success so f ar as conversion in the large tubes is con- 

 cerned. The adaptation of the unit to refinery conditions is a matter 

 of median, detail involving no inherent difficuUies. In view of the 

 continuous Operation of the benzene-toluene process by the Aetna 

 Explosives Co., over a period of nearly one yr., as well as the results 

 of the large-scale Operations, there can exist little doubt as to the 

 success of the benzene-toluene process on a commer. operative scale. 

 It has been proved that benzene and toluene can be produced in large 

 quantities by this process. These products have been shown to be 

 capable of being worked into the nitro-compounds desired for 

 making explosives. Furthermore, these nitro-compounds, or the 

 derivatives thereof, are equally suitable for use in producing dye- 

 stufTs. 



The Claims which were made for the process at the outset have 

 thus been fully verified by commer. results, and its future is depend- 

 ent alone upon the perfection of the mechan. apparatus and the con- 

 sequent reduction in labor and operating costs. W. F. Rittman, 

 C. B. Button and E. W. Dean : Jonr. Ind. and Eng. Chem., 19 16, 

 viii, p. 361. 



Unsuspected SYPHILIS. Mauy years ago Sir William Osler 

 used to emphasize the importance of obscure syphilis and admon- 

 ished his students in no uncertain terms to remember the frequency 

 and diversity of the manifestations of this protean disease; and only 

 the other day his successor in Balt., Dr. L. F. Barker, speaking 

 before the N. Y. Acad. of Med., said: "The more my experience 

 grows, the more I am inclined to take as a diagnostic aphorism, 

 * When in doubt have a Wassermann test made ; when not in doubt 

 still have a Wassermann test made.'" Editorial: Amer. Med., 

 1916, xxii, p. 152. 



Eile pigment metabolism. The curve of bile pigm. secre- 

 tion can be depressed below normal by a meat diet, and can be 

 raised much above normal by a diet rieh in carbohydrates. . . . 



