March 26, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



283 



according to experiments made by Durante and 

 by Zahn. In a short time (in man in three 

 minutes) after the blood is withdrawn from the 

 veins, or after death, coagulation of the blood 

 commences. Coagulation can be hindered or sus- 

 pended in various ways, such as contact with 

 living healthy vessels (Lister, Bruecke), exposure 

 to low temperature (at 0° C), or by the addition 

 of solutions of certain neutral salts (sodium chlo- 

 ride, sulphate, carbonate ; magnesium sulphate, 

 etc.). If peptone is mixed with the blood, its 

 clotting is suspended ; and Dr. Haycraft of Edin- 

 burgh has kept it fluid for a longer time by adding 

 an aqueous extract prepared from the intestines of 

 leeches. It may be also noted that a German 

 physiologist, Professor Gruenhagen, some time 

 ago observed that blood, if collected in glycerine, 

 remained fluid so long as a mixture did not take 

 place. 



Now, Mr. Freund has found a very simple 

 method to prevent the coagulation. He collected 

 the blood, drawn from the vein of an animal, 

 under oil, and it remained fluid for many days. 

 In further experiments it was found, that, in 

 arterial blood collected in a glass vessel whose 

 walls were continuously coated with a film of vas- 

 eline, the fibrine did not separate, even wiien 

 stirred or agitated with a vaseline-coated glass 

 rod ; but, as soon as the blood was poured into an 

 ordinary receptacle, the fibrine was immediately 

 coagulated. It was further observed by Freund 

 that the presence of minute foreign bodies, such 

 as particles of dust, was sufficient to produce clot- 

 ting. These experiments were made, both at ordi- 

 nary temperatures and at that of the body, with 

 equal success. In one of the experiments which I 

 had the opportunity of seeing, a glass tube coated 

 with oil was inserted into the carotid artery of a 

 dog, while a dry tube was connected with the 

 crural artery of the same animal. The blood in 

 the latter was clotted in fifteen minutes ; but the 

 pulsations of the blood column in the oiled tube 

 were perceptible for more than two hours and a 

 half. Fresh blood contained in fish-bladders, or 

 parchment tubes, which had been previously soaked 

 in a 0.6 per cent solution of chloride of sodium, 

 and afterwards covered with a like solution, re- 

 mained fluid for many days. 



Mr. Freund has made a preliminary communica- 

 tion on his researches, which will be continued in 

 an early number of the Wiener medicinische jalir- 

 biicher. V. C. 



Vienna, Feb. 16. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The teachers' course in chemistry at Harvard 

 during the summer of 1886 will be under the di- 



rection of Dr. Comey, and will open July 5, and 

 close Aug. 14. Instruction will be given in gen- 

 eral chemistry, qualitative analysis, quantitative 

 analysis, and organic chemistry. A course in 

 mineralogy will also be given. The fee for the 

 course is twenty-five dollars. An additional 

 charge, which has averaged from five to six dol- 

 lars, is made for the material and apparatus con- 

 sumed by each student. The summer classes are 

 offered the same facilities for laboratory work as 

 are open to students during the academic year. 

 The college library is open for the use of students 

 in these courses. For further information address 

 Arthur M. Comey, Harvard chemical laboratory, 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



— On the 23d of September, 1882, Friedrich 

 Wohler died, in his eighty-third year, one of the 

 last and one of the most eminent of the chemists 

 whose lives and labors connected the early forma- 

 tive age of the science with that of its recent 

 wide expansion. As investigator and teacher, as 

 author and scientific correspondent, he deserved, 

 as few have done of those who have passed away 

 in our time, that his memory be held in honor by 

 those who care for the science of chemistry. Soon 

 after his death a movement w T as begun in Ger- 

 many, originating with the German chemical 

 society, for the collection of an adequate sum of 

 money with which to erect in Gottingen a statue 

 to Wohler, as a permanent monument, on the 

 spot where most of his life's work was done. The 

 subscription has reached the sum of about four 

 thousand dollars, but this is not yet sufficient for 

 the purpose in view. The co-operation of Ameri- 

 can chemists has recently been asked by a mem- 

 ber of the local committee in Gottingen, in a let- 

 ter addressed to one of the undersigned, who have 

 formed a committee for the United States in order 

 to give practical shape to action in this country. 

 Contributions may be sent to any one of the fol- 

 lowing : James C. Booth, U. S. mint, Philadel- 

 phia ; J. W. Mallet (chairman), University of Vir- 

 ginia : C. F. Chandler, Columbia college, New 

 York : H. B. Nason, Rensselaer polytechnic in- 

 stitute, Troy ; F. Frerichs, Mallinckrodt chemical 

 works, St. Louis ; Ira Reinsen (secretary and 

 treasurer;, Johns Hopkins university ; Wolcott 

 Gibbs, Cambridge ; W. B. Rising, University of 

 California, Berkeley ; E.P. Harris, Amherst, Mass. ; 

 S. P. Sadtler, University of Pennsylvania, Phila- 

 delphia ; J. W. Langley, Ann Arbor ; C. U. Shep- 

 ard, jun., Charleston, S.C. ; F. Mahla, corner 21st 

 Street and Stewart Avenue, Chicago ; Eugene A. 

 Smith, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. 



— Four additional sheets of the New Jersey 

 topographical map are lately issued, making ten 



