244 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 376 



have otherwise most piinful operations' perfornied^on theai with- 

 out an anaesthetic. The patient in question bad, during a paroxy sqi 

 of hysteria, fractured her lower jaw and injured the facial artery. 

 The injury proved a most serious one, and necessitated the liga- 

 tion of the facial and carotid arteries, and finally the removal of 

 part of the lower jaw. The patient insisted upon having all three 

 operations performed without an anaesthetic, and told the operator 

 that she had derived great pleasure from the operation." 



Action of Caffeine. 

 The Paris correspondent of the Boston Medical and Surgical 

 Journal reports that at the meeting of the Academy of Medicine 

 in March, Professor Germain See read a paper on the researches 

 he had undertaken in conjunction with Dr. Lapicque, his chef de 

 laboratoire, on the action of caffeine on the motor and respiratory 

 functions in a normal stale and in a state of inanition, the conclu- 

 sions of which may be summed up as follows : I. Caffeine in small 

 and repeated doses, about sixty centigrams per day, which may 

 be prescribed with 'ad vantage to soldiers on the maich, facilitates 

 muscular work in augmenting the activity, not directly of the 

 muscle itself, but of the motor nervous system, cerebral as well as 

 medullary. The consequence of this double action is to diminish 

 the sensation of eflfort, and to avert fatigue, which constitutes a 

 nervovis and at the same time a chemical phenomenon. 3. Caffe- 

 ine prevents breathlessness and palpitations consecutive to effort, 

 which is of great importance. S. It thus immediately communi- 

 cates to a man who gives himself up to violent and prolonged 

 exercise the aid that he require.^. 4. In producing this excitation 

 of the cerebro-spinal motor system, on which depends the aug- 

 mentation of the muscular tonicity, the caffeine augments the 

 waste of the carbon of the organism, and particularly of the 

 muscles, but it does not restrain the nitrogenous waste. It there- 

 fore is not, in the strict sense of the word, a means of saving 

 (moyen d'epargne). 5. A saving action in general can take place 

 in the higher animals in a complete manner to prevent the in- 

 jurious effects of fasting, only in a condition impossible to realize; 

 namely, inaction or immobility, more or less absolute where there 

 is little expenditure without work. With caffeine, we observe just 

 the reverse, that is to say, an intense work, which we will obtain 

 only at the expense of the wear and tear of the organism. The 

 animal machine can work only in consuming combustible matters, 

 and it is precisely in promoting this combustion that caffeine per- 

 mits muscular work even during fasting. 6. Caffeine has not, as 

 is generally believed, the marvellous property of replacing food : 

 it only replaces the general tonic excitation which the ingestion of 

 food produces, If it be admitted that it is the direct and instan- 

 taneous action of the aliments which stimulate the stomach and 

 the nervous system, and that their alimentary value is primarily 

 nothing, one might substitute one stimulant for another. Caffeine, 

 far from sparing the reserves, will place a fasting man in a posi- 

 tion to undertake his work only by attacking these reserves, the 

 destruction of which it hastens by the excitation of the nervous 

 system, and, by its medium, that of the muscles. The organism 

 will then soon use up its nutritive supply, and the caffeine will 

 not prevent it. It is, nevertheless, of incontestable but temporary 

 utility for the physical forces. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A NCJMBER of Chicago "lady medicals" are said to have or- 

 ganized a committee for the purjwse of securing an international 

 congress of women physicians in 1893. 



— One of the latest additions to the University of Pennsylvania 

 is the establishment of an arcliEeological museum. In addition to 

 the American specimens, the museum contains a fine collection 

 of flints, bronze implements, and pottery from Europe, as well as 

 objects from Asia, Africa, and the South Sea Islands. 



— Dr. Eothroek, professor of botany at the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, is preparing for the establishment of a museum which 

 promises to be of unusual industrial importance. The new col- 

 Section, to be called the •' Museum of Economic Botany," will 

 consist of specimens of all kinds of woods, vegetable fibres, grains 

 and drugs, arranged so as to illustrate the processes of manufac- 



ture from the raw product, and the various uses to which each 

 material may be put. 



— A study of the figures presented in the lb90 edition of George 

 P. Rowell & Co.'s "American Newspaper Directory" reveals some 

 interesting facts pertaining to the business of newspaper publish- 

 ing. This volume, which was issued April 1. and is the acknowl- 

 edged authority on newspaper statistics, estimates the total num- 

 ber of papers now published in the United States and Canada at 

 17,760. Of these, 813 are Canadian publications. This is a net 

 increase, since last year, of 639 in the United States and 34 in the 

 Dominion of Canada. 



— In the course of some excavations lately made at Ludwigs- 

 hafen, on the Rhine, the tibia and two teeth of a mammoth, and 

 the jaw of a stag, were found. The skeleton of another '-ante- 

 diluvian" animal, Nutttre states, was disco\ered in the limestone 

 near Oberhildesheim, The researches are being continued. 



— According to a French journal, the number of foreign students 

 now studying in Pans is about 1.000, of whom 739 (107 of them 

 women) are stud) ing medicine, and 183 law. Literature has 66 

 (including 9 women), science 60, and pharmacy 33. It is remarka- 

 ble, says Nature, that Russia furnishes the largest contingent of 

 ihe foreign medical students, viz., 150; America coming next 

 with 139. We find no mention of England. The foreign element 

 is, on the above estimate, about one-tenth of the whole. 



— At a meeting of the Societe Chimique de Paris in March a 

 paper by M. Meslans was presented by M. Moissan. announcing 

 the isolation of fluoroform (CHFg), the fluorine analogue of chlo- 

 roform (CHCI3). A brief abstract of this preliminary communi- 

 cation will be found in tlie Chemiker Zeiiung for March 26. 

 During the course of the work recently published concerning 

 propyl and isopropyl fluorides, we learn from Nature, M. Meslans 

 had occasion to study the action of silver fluoride upon iodoform. 

 The result of this action was found to vary according to the con- 

 ditions of experiment, liquid products being obtained under cer- 

 tain conditions, and gaseous products under others. The end 

 result, however, was always the production of a gas, which turns 

 out to be fluoroform. Chloroform, as is well known, is readily 

 attacked by a warm alcoholic solution of potash, potassium 

 chloride and potassium formate being produced : CHCI3 + 4K0H 

 = H . COOK -I- 3KC1 + 3Hj,0. It is interesting to learn that 

 fluoroform behaves in precisely the same manner, for the gas is 

 decomposed by either aqueous or alcoholic potash vvith formation 

 of fluoride and formate of potassium. On being heated to redness 

 in a glass tube, fluoroform is also decomposed, with production 

 of gaseous silicon tetrafluoride and a deposit of carbon. The gas 

 is only very slightly absorbed by water, but it dissolves readily in 

 chloroform or alcohol. Fluoroform has also been prepared by 

 substituting chloroform or bromoform for the iodoform used in 

 the first experiments. 



— The superiority of the highways of Europe over those of the 

 United States is one of the first things which attracts the atten- 

 tion of the traveller from this country. In Europe the roads are 

 under the supervision of officials who are thoroughly trained for 

 their work. In the United States road-engineering is committed 

 to the control of citizens not particularly interested in this im- 

 posed task, and with no special training for their duties. The 

 results are evident. Our public roads are a disgrace to the people. 

 To assist in remedying this condition of affairs in Ohio, by dis- 

 seminating information on the subject of roads, and proper ideas 

 with regard to their construction and management. Case School 

 of Applied Science, Cleveland, will give, free of charge, instruc- 

 tion in road-engineering sufficient to qualify a man of ordinary 

 intelligence to properly locate and manage a highway. The in- 

 struction will consist of lectures on the following topics: location 

 and construction of roads; keeping up and repairing roads; ditch- 

 ing and drainage; road-making machinery; improvement of the 

 surface of roads, including the use of gravel, brokeii stone, plank, 

 paving, etc; highway structures, including retaining walls, cul- 

 verts, bridges, etc. ; cost of earthwork and mechanical structures; 

 highway administration; and la%vs relating to highways. For 

 those who desire it, instruction will be given in the use of instru- 

 ments employed in road-engineering, — the compass, transit, and 



