RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 127 



Macht, Herman, and Levy have studied (J.Pharmacol, vol. 

 viii.) quantitatively the analgesia produced by the alkaloids of 

 opium when given singly and in combination to normal men. 

 They find the order of analgesic power to be morphine, papa- 

 verine, codeine, narcotine, narcein, thebaine. Combinations of 

 morphine with the other alkaloids were much more effective 

 than morphine alone. Narcotine and morphine proved a par- 

 ticularly efficacious mixture. 



O'Connor (Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. lxxxix. B) gives an interesting 

 account of observations on the regulation of body-temperature 

 during anaesthesia. Anaesthetic animals consume oxygen at a 

 rate proportional to their body temperature, except when shiver- 

 ing. Shivering depends on fall of temperature in the brain 

 and leads to increased consumption of ox}'gen. This increment 

 is proportional to the difference between the skin temperature of 

 the moment and the brain temperature at which shivering begins. 



The measurement of blood pressure on man is discussed 

 (Amer.Journ. Physiol, vols, xxxix. and xl.) by Erlanger, and by 

 Brooks and Luckhardt. The latter workers find that the 

 criteria usually accepted for systolic, and for diastolic, pressures 

 give readings which are too high. With normal arteries this 

 error is small, but with increasing rigidity of the vessel wall 

 it may become considerable. Erlanger discusses the interpre- 

 tation of the maximum pressure oscillations, and of the sound 

 of Korotkoff. 



Ainley Walker (Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. lxxxix. B) finds body- 

 length (stem-length) throughout the period of growth (in man) 

 to fit the formula / = kW n . In males, n = -33 and k averages 

 23*33 ; in females, n = -32 and k averages 25*58. If the stem- 

 length of an individual differs by 17 per cent, from its 

 calculated value, the individual is "certainly abnormal." 



Three papers by Hekma (Biochem. Zeitschr. vols, lxxiii. and 

 lxxiv.) discuss the formation and separation of fibrin. Hekma 

 discards the term fibrinogen, describing fibrin as pre-existent in 

 blood (and other solutions which yield it) as an alkali-hydrosol. 

 When coagulation takes place, this fibrin-alkali-hydrosol be- 

 comes a simpler fibrin-hydrosol changing from an emulsoid 

 (dispersed phase liquid) to a suspensoid (dispersed phase semi- 

 solid or solid) in which the initially ultra-microscopic particles 

 pass gradually into the characteristic threads. He regards 

 the separation of fibrin as being independent of enzyme action, 



