I40 



NATURE 



{Dec. 21, 1871 



at least as good a right to kill sick animals for 

 the purpose of investigating the anatomical changes 

 produced by disease, as to slaughter healthy ani- 

 mals for food. And even if in the pursuit of our inquiries 

 we are compelled to inflict pain, we are perfectly right in 

 doing so— provided that truths valuable to humanity are 

 to be learnt by it. 



The other respect in which the comparative patholo- 

 gist has an advantage over the clinicist, lies in the choice 

 of means. It is true that during the last few years much 

 progress has been made in the application of instru- 

 ments of precision to the investigation even of human 

 diseases ; but, after all, there are few of those instruments 

 which are really valuable. In the case of animals it is 

 entirely different. The microscope may be applied to the 

 investigation of tissues unaltered by those changes which 

 speedily follow the e.\tinction of life. The measurement 

 of the temperature of the body, whether with relation to 

 the changes which it undergoes in disease, or to the dif- 

 ferences between diseased and healthy parts, can be per- 

 formed in animals with all the exactitude which such 

 investigations require — in man such exactitude is impos- 

 sible, because the conditions of observation cannot be 

 controlled. Instruments of precision may be used for the 

 investigation of the changes which disease produces in 

 the mechanical functions of respiration and circulation, 

 which, for reasons already adverted to, could not be 

 applied in the sick room, or in the wards of a hospital — 

 and if they were applied, would yield no satisfactory 

 results. 



Again, in animals it is possible to apply the ordinary 

 methods of chemistry to investigate the modifications 

 produced by disease in the process of nutrition ; whereas 

 in man this is attended with such insuperable difficulties, 

 that it may be regarded as impossible. 



Many other similar examples might be mentioned ; but 

 these may serve to explain the way in which we hope to 

 see the new laboratory at \'auxhall brought into rela- 

 tion with the hospital for sick animals. Believing that 

 the study of pathology, like that of physiology, of which 

 it forms part, can only be successfully prosecuted by 

 observing the operation of chemical and physical laws in 

 the living diseased body, and applying the same methods 

 as are used by the chemist and physicist to their investi- 

 gation, and that the more this principle is acted on, the 

 more rapid and solid will be the progress made, we 

 regard the establishment of the Brown Institution as an 

 important step in the right direction. We should have 

 been still better pleased if it had been a laboratory of 

 physiology, for this ought to have preceded the other. 

 We think it, however, not unlikely that it may, by setting 

 an example of good work, exercise a considerable indirect 

 influence in the promotion of physiological studies in this 

 country. 



We must not omit to mention that although the labora- 

 tory is intended for research rather than for instruction, 

 it will be open to those who may wish to engage on their 

 own account in scientific inquiries. The only condition 

 imposed by the directors on those who desire admission 

 to the laboratory as workers, is the possession of " previous 

 scientific trainmg." Each worker will have to defray the 

 expenses of material, but no other payment will be re- 

 quired of him. It is understood that the laboratory will 

 be opened on the ist of January, 1872. 



FOREIGN YEAR-BOOKS 



Jnhrbuch dcr Erfindungen. Herausgegeben von H. 

 Hirzel und H. Gretschcl. Sechster Jahrgang. (Leipzig : 

 Quandt und Hiindel ; London : Williams and Norgatc, 

 1870; pp. 472.) 



THE sixth volume of this series fully sustains the 

 high character achieved by its predecessors. As- 

 tronomy, physics and meteorology, mechanics and ni':- 

 chanical technology, and chemistry and chemical tech- 

 nology form the subjects of the respective chapters. 



We cannot open any part of the work without observing 

 the care with which it is edited. We shall select for special 

 notice the latter part of the chapter on chemistry, which 

 treats of organic compounds, beginning with the following 

 paragraph upon the products of oxidation of paraffin. After 

 describing the recent improvements introduced by Hi.ibner 

 in the preparation of this substance from coal-tar, and in 

 its mode of purification, and noticing its remarkable 

 stability (it being unaffected by concentrated hydrochloric 

 or sulphuric acids, and by the alkalies), the reporters 

 state that there are certain oxidising agents, and especially 

 chromic and nitric acids, which it is unable to resist. Gill 

 and Meusel have studied the action of these reagents on 

 paraffin, and have arrived at the following results : — 



" The paraffin in common use fuses at 56- C, and by 

 repeated crystallisation from sulphide of carbon the fusing 

 point may be raised to 60" and upwards. If we boil from 

 300 to 500 grammes of pure paraffin with 120 grs. of bi- 

 chromate of potash, and 180 grs. with sulphuric acid 

 diluted with twice its volume of water for three or four 

 days in a glass retort till the chromic acid is completely 

 1 educed to chrome-oxide, acetic acid and other acids of 

 the same series, and principally cerotic acid, are formed ; 

 the latter being a white solid substance that does not fuse 

 at a lower point than 78° C, and also occurs as a main 

 constituent of bees'-wax. If we boil paraffin continuously 

 with five or six times its volume of nitric acid of I '3 sp. gr., 

 which has been previously diluted with lA times its 

 volume of water, we likewise obtain cerotic acid, in addi- 

 tion to acetic, butyric, valerianic, and succinic acids, and 

 other products" (p. 261). 



Passing over a section on " Fats, fatty oils, and allied 

 substances, and the products of their decomposition," 

 in which is a notice of the explosive compounds derived 

 from glycerine, we come to one treating of " Resins," 

 in which there is a notice of Puscher's interesting and 

 highly-practical communication on shellac-ammonia solu- 

 tions. Perhaps the most valuable of the applications of 

 these solutions is their property of dissolving certain of 

 the aniline colours, as aniline green, aniline yellow, and 

 fuchsine. 



The organic non-nitrogenous acids, the carbo-hydrates, 

 alcohol and its products, the albuminous bodies and their 

 allies, newly-discovered organic bases, pigments and pig- 

 ment-yielding bodies, both natural and artificial, nutritious 

 matters, and disinfectants, are all duly considered. The 

 report on artificial pigments is especially deserving of 

 commendation. It consists of nearly fifty pages full of 

 practical matter, and, taken in conjunction with a pre- 

 vious report that appeared in the second volume (for 1 866), 

 forms the most complete summary of this important de- 

 partment of practical chemistry, that, taking its limits 

 into consideration, we are acquainted with. 



As usual the volume concludes with a necrology for the 

 past year. 



