3IO 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No 435 



The lesson to American farmers, especially those of the North- 

 west, which the total product of the cultivation of flax in Russia 

 furnishes will be readily appreciated and understood. The possi- 

 bilities which the cultivation of the flax fibre offers to Western 

 farmers is only equalled by the surprise that such possibilities have 

 thus far been neglected. The seed has been cultivated with more 

 or less satisfactory results in the United States, but the fibre prac- 

 tically not at all. The climate, soil, and conditions generally 

 throughout the North-west are very favorable to the cultivation of 

 the flax fibre as well as the seed. After a short experience, as to 

 the primary manipulation or handling of the flax fibre, our farmers 

 would produce flax which would compare favorably with the best 

 varieties of the flbre. It seems strange that a practical people like 

 ourselves should for years have been satisfied to cultivate flax for 

 the seed at a value of about fifteen dollars per acre, and at the 

 same time allow six hundred pounds of flax fibre per acre to rot 

 on the ground, this flax fibre having a value, after being manipu- 

 lated, of $186 per ton. 



Familiar as our farmers are with the working of improved and 

 expensive agricultural machinery, and the latest developments of 

 the human intellect as applied to the soil, they may always learn 

 something by watching the working of rude ideas as seen in a 

 primitive and unsophisticated people. The main difference be- 

 tween the old and the new system of farming is not one of method, 

 but of expense ; and, as physicians never really know what a dis- 

 ease is capable of until they see an outbreak in virgin soil, so it is 

 not possible to fathom aU the possibilities of the most commonplace 

 notions and devices until we see them applied with the unconven- 

 tional freedom and simple directness that belong to comparatively 

 primitive peoples. The Russian peasant is both simple-minded 

 and ignorant. He clings to old methods as much from liking as 

 for the expense which new methods involve. From the flax fibre, 

 by the aid of his primitive and rude contrivance, the Russian 

 peasant produces linen, thread, crash, and other valuable and 

 necessary articles for the use of his family and for sale. It does 

 not require the aid of expensive machinery to make the flax fibre 

 either useful or valuable. The rude machines which the Russian 

 peasant employs are the handiwork of some village carpenter or 

 wheelwright, and are made at a comparatively small cost. If the 

 Russian peasant farmer accomplishes such results, the American 

 farmers, who possess like conditions of climate and soil, should 

 accomplish much more. 



The unsatisfactory condition of our farmers in our north-western 

 States, which is certainly due to the overcultivation of wheat, 

 with its yearly decreasing yield per acre, renders it all the more 

 important that a speedy means be found to relieve a condition of 

 things which affects the material interest and welfare of the great 

 majority of the people of the United States. Such a means exists 

 in the flax plant. It will not only enable farmers to make their 

 own linen, rope, thread, crash toweling, oil cake, and much be- 

 sides, but will cause new industries to be established throughout 

 the country in districts where the advent would be both profitable 

 and new. There should be a general and persistent effort made 

 to encourage the cultivation of the flax fibre throughout the 

 United States, with the view of establishing factories for the 

 manufacture of twine or textiles, and, if our consul's report should 

 develop a proper interest in so important a subject, the result can 

 not fail to be satisfactory. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



The Anaesthetic Action of Nitrogen. 



While some writers maintain that the anaesthetic action of 

 nitrous oxide is due to its preventing access of free oxygen to the 

 system, others beheve that it has a " specific ansesthetic action." 

 It occurred to Dr. G. Johnson {Lancet, April 11) that some light 

 might be thrown upon this subject by the administration of pure 

 nitrogen. Accordingly he obtained a cylinder containing 100 cu- 

 bic feet of compressed nitrogen, in which the proportion of oxygen 

 present was only 0. 5 per cent by volume, with 0. 3 per cent of CO^ . 

 As a preliminary trial, Mr. F. W. Braine administered this gas in 

 five instances to members of the staff of King's College, who vol- 



unteered to submit to the experiments. The result was in each 

 case the production of. complete aneesthesia and of general phe- 

 nomena precisely similar to those observed from the inhalations of 

 nitrous oxide. Encouraged by these results, Mr. Braine felt jus- 

 tified in administering the gas to patients at the Dental Hospital 

 for an89sthetic purposes. Nine patients took the gas. In every 

 case the result was the production of complete ansesthesia, with 

 general phenomena similar to those observed during nitrous oxide 

 inhalation. The pulse was first full and throbbing, then feeble. 

 In the advanced stage the respiration was deep and rapid, and 

 there was lividity of the surface; the pupils were dilated, and 

 there was more or less jactitation of the limbs. The only differ- 

 ence, in the opinion of some of those present, being that the anaes- 

 thesia was less rapidly produced, and somewhat less durable, than 

 that from nitrous oxide, though in each case the tooth was ex- 

 tracted without pain. 



On a subsequent occasion the same gas was administered by Dr. 

 Frederic Hewitt at the Dental Hospital. As before, nine patients 

 took the gas. The maximum period required to produce anaes- 

 thesia was 70 seconds, the minimum 50 seconds, and the mean 

 time 58.3 seconds. In one case two teeth were extracted without 

 pain. In one case only was pain experienced, and in that case, 

 the tooth having been broken up and not extracted, the patient 

 said she felt a " smashing up." 



Having on several occasions witnessed the administration by 

 Dr. Hewitt of nitrous oxide mixed with ten per cent by volume of 

 oxygen, with the result of producing anaesthesia without lividity 

 or jactitation. Dr. Johnson determined to try a mixture of nitro- 

 gen with a small proportion of oxygen. He therefore obtained 

 from the same source of supply a cylinder containing forty 

 cubic feet of nitrogen mixed with three per cent by volume of 

 oxygen, and a second cylinder equally charged with a mixture of 

 nitrogen with five per cent by volume of oxygen. These gases 

 were administered by Dr. Hewetfc to patients at the Dental Hos- 

 pital with the following results. In the case of the three per cent 

 gas, which was given to five patients, the time required to produce 

 anasthesia varied from 60 to 75 seconds, the average time being 

 67.5 seconds. In each case the tooth was extracted without pain, 

 the duration of ansesthesia being somewhat longer than with pure 

 nitrogen. In each case there was lividity, dilatation of pupils, 

 and more or less jactitation. On the same day Dr. Hewitt gave 

 nitrogen with five per cent oxygen to four patients. With this 

 mixture the time required for the production of anaesthesia ranged 

 from 75 to 95 seconds, the average being 87.5 seconds. In each 

 case there was complete anaesthesia, during which one patient 

 had three molars extracted, and, although she said she " felt the 

 two last," the sensation appears to have been that of a pull, and 

 not of acute pain. In all of these four oases there was slight liv- 

 idity before the face-piece was removed, but in only one case was 

 there slight jactitation of the limbs. The other three patients 

 were perfectly quiescent. 



The experiments here recorded suffice to prove that nitrogen, 

 pure or mixed with a small proportion of oxygen, is as complete 

 and apparently as safe an anaesthetic as nitrous oxide. It is to be 

 hoped that those who are engaged in the administration of anaes- 

 thetic gases will investigate this interesting subject further, with 

 a view to ascertain whether atmospheric air, partially deprived of 

 its oxygen, may be advantageously substituted as an anaesthetic for 

 nitrous oxide. 



Treatment of Phthisis. 



According to the Lancet, Dr. Germain-See, in his new method 

 of treating phthisis, shuts his patient up for two, three, or more 

 hours daily in a hermetically closed metallic chamber, into which 

 is slowly admitted a current of compressed air, which, having 

 passed through a mixture of creosote and eucalyptol, is saturated 

 with the vapor of these substances. Since August last ten cases of 

 phthisis have been submitted to this treatment, all of which cases, 

 with one exception, had reached the period of softening, and 

 bacilli had been detected in the sputa. The results obtained were, 

 return of appetite, even in advanced cases, gain of weight and 

 strength, fall of temperature to the normal in a week or two, dis- 

 appearance of haemoptysis, diminution of cough and of purulency 



