624 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1884. 



It is unuecessary to repeat that the effect is confined to the part to 

 which the aueesthetic has been applied. There is no general anaesthesia 

 and no influence on the mind. The patient is left free to aid the opera- 

 tion by turning the eye in any required direction, holding down the 

 lid, or in any such way, and can give this help almost as indifferently 

 as a third i)erson, and often more successfully. The absence of the 

 tendency to close the eye, which accompanies general anaesthesia, is a 

 great advantage. 



Before the close of the yeaY an immense demand arose for the new 

 drug, and, owing to its rarity and the small supply on hand, its price 

 rose to $225 per ounce, or, according to another report, $7,000 per 

 pound. The leaf yields less than one-fifth of 1 per cent, cocaine. 

 Fortunately only a 4 per cent, solution is used, and only a few drops 

 of this are needed to produce the effect desired. 



The new anaesthetic proves to be a great boon to ophthalmologists, 

 and experiments are being made to extend its use to other departments 

 of medical and surgical practice. Dentists, in particular, hope to find 

 in it a remedial agent of value. Hypodermic injections of the 4 per 

 cent, solution anaesthize the nervous centers. It has been used to 

 narcotize the throat and larynx when covered with ulcers, to remove 

 violent headaches, &c. It can well be classed among the great dis- 

 coveries of the decade. 



The question naturally occurs to a chemist, compiling this brief notice 

 from various sources, how many more obscure substances await useful 

 applications ! Who dare say hereafter that the newly born chemical 

 infant of ijolysyllabic name may not become a giant in strength and a 

 blessing to Christendom ? 



NOTES. 



Idunium is the name of a new element discovered in lead vanadate 

 from La Plata bj^ Prof. Martin Websky. It resembles vanadium in its 

 reactions. [Sitzungsh. Ak. Wiss., Berlin, xxx, 601.) 



According to L. Kicciardi, the lavas and ashes of volcanic origin con- 

 tain 0.0034 to 0.013 per cent, of vanadium, and even the plants growing 

 in the lava of Etna contain appreciable quantities of this widely dis- 

 tributed yet rare element. (Gazz. chim. italiana, xiii, 259.) 



Eed and yellow litharge are two varieties obtained according to tem- 

 perature and treatment of the material. Geuther has studied their 

 formation, and regards the yellow as PbsOs, and the red variety as jts 

 isomer, PbgOe. The yellow variety is orthorhonibic and the red tetrag- 

 onal in crystallization. Friction converts the former into the latter. 

 (Liebig^s Ann. d. Cheniie, ccxix, 56.) 



The alleged transformation of brucine into strychnine by the action 

 of hot dilute nitric acid, announced by Sonnenschein in 1875, is denied 

 by Hanriot, who believes the strychnine i)re existed in the imperfectly 

 purified brucine. Hanriot also finds that brucine masks the presence of 



