May 7, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



411 



very beneficial. The Belgian government has de- 

 cided to try and create a second Gheel, and has 

 chosen Lierneux, wishing to have a Gheel where 

 French is spoken, for the benefit of the part of 

 Belgium where French is the only language un- 

 derstood, as Gheel is in the Walloon part of that 

 country, and is very inconvenient for French- 

 speaking insane. This plan seems to meet with 

 success, and Lierneux is already provided with a 

 number of patients, and with a committee for in- 

 spection and surveillance. We hope that Lier- 

 neux will thrive as well as Gheel has and does. I 

 visited Gheel two years ago, and convinced myself 

 that the insane are under happier and in health- 

 ier conditions than in asylums, and that if they 

 are well looked after by the authorities, they are as 

 well nursed and cared for. I may add, that, when 

 a system has outlived some centuries, there must 

 be some good in it. 



A Parisian physician, Dr. Sandras, created some 

 time ago quite a sensation in the medical world 

 by a paper on the possibility of modifying the 

 human voice to an unprecedented extent by the 

 use of different inhalations, bringing to the larynx 

 air saturated with different vapors. His opinion 

 is based exclusively on experimental tests, not at 

 all on theoretical views. Dr. Sandras pretends to 

 be able to change the nature, intensity, pitch, and 

 extent of the voice in quite a surprising manner. 

 For instance, after ten or twelve inspirations of 

 alcoholic vapors, the voice becomes quite hoarse, 

 and cannot give more than five or six different 

 notes. Inhalations with Guyot's eau de Gondron 

 enfeeble the voice ; on the contrary, eau de Botot 

 strengthens the voice in a very marked manner ; 

 and with some essences — Dr. Sandras does not 

 say which — this strengthening is so very great 

 that the voice acquires new notes, high as well as 

 low. Other substances confer only low notes ; and 

 others, only high ones. If the facts discovered by 

 Dr. Sandras prove to be true for other persons 

 than himself, this discovery will be very useful to 

 singers, preachers, lawyers, and all persons gen- 

 erally that are obliged to use their voice a great 

 deal. If it is also true that hoarseness of the voice 

 brought on by cold can be cured in a few minutes, 

 I do not doubt that the method will be much ap- 

 pealed to. For singers, certainly, the possibility 

 of increasing the number of notes of the voice, 

 either in the upper or in the lower or in both keys, 

 will be much appreciated. Experiments with Dr. 

 Sandras's method are to be made in the Conserva- 

 toire de musique. 



The second number of the Archives slaves de 

 biologie contains many interesting papers. One 

 of them is by Professor Anrep, on ptomaines. The 

 author has witnessed many cases of poisoning by 



preserved fish (sturgeon) in Russia, and has been 

 able to isolate and extract the poisonous substance 

 by the Stass-Otto method. The ptomaines so ob- 

 tained are very toxic ; and the symptoms brought 

 on in animals very much resemble those of the 

 principal depressing and paralyzing poisons. 



Prof. A. Gautier has recently published an ac- 

 count of his experiments and researches on pto- 

 maines and leucomaines. The facts he has dis- 

 covered are very interesting indeed, and he has 

 opened new ways in chemistry and physiology. 

 The first leucomaine discovered was creatinin, 

 found by Liebig and Petenkofer in 1849. Since 

 then, M. Gautier, in 1881, following researches 

 begun by his pupil, G. Pouchet, and beginning- 

 new experiments of an entirely different order, 

 has been able to isolate many leucomaines very 

 analogous to ptomaines, but quite different in that 

 they develop only in living organisms. Leuco- 

 maines are found abundantly in the muscles : 

 they are of many sorts. Xantocreatinine, cru- 

 socreatinine, amphicreatine, pseudoxanthine, are 

 the most important. As to the manner in which 

 these leucomaines originate, Professor Gautier 

 cannot say, but he believes that the oxygen 

 brought into the organism is the most efficient 

 agent in the destruction of these poisons. They 

 all oxidize very easily. Of course, if, for some 

 reason or other, oxygen is less abundant in the 

 blood (anaemia, chlorosis, etc.), leucomaines may 

 become very abundant, and exert a toxical in- 

 fluence on the organism. Professor Gautier's ex- 

 periments are very interesting from a physiological 

 point of view : they may also become a stand- 

 point for very useful pathological applications, 

 because it is very natural to suppose, that, if leuco- 

 maines are able to originate and accumulate in a 

 certain quantity in the organism, they must surely, 

 in some cases, represent the origin of sundry dis- 

 eases, or at least certain symptoms, hitherto un- 

 explained or misinterpreted. 



Yesterday evening, the Stanley club, which com- 

 prises the leading members of the Anglo-American 

 colony in Paris, gave a dinner at the Continental 

 hotel in honor of Pasteur. M. MacLane presided, 

 and at the end of the dinner proposed a very ap- 

 propriate toast to Pasteur, concluding as follows : 

 "The United States, represented by the Stanley 

 club, give you greeting, sir, as one of the most 

 illustrious of those esprits d'elite, and, while pro- 

 posing your health, I express, on America's be- 

 half, the hope that your career, already filled up 

 with so many great works, shall be yet a durable 

 one, for the joy of those who suffer, and for the 

 instruction of those who learn by your example 

 how disease may be overpowered by labor and 

 science." M. Pasteur answered M. MacLane, giv- 



