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ZOOLOGY: J. F. FULTON, JR. 
Proc. N. A. S. 
skew-symmetric if and only if 8 = — y, e = y, and then M 2 M Z = 7M4, 
M2M4 = —yM z , M^Mi = yM 2 . Writing i, j, k for M 2 , M 3 , yM A , we have 
the multiplication table of quaternions. Or we may form the matrix 
M and write X k for the sum of the products of the elements of its kth 
row by £1, . . . , £ 4 , and take 7 = 1 (by multiplying # 4 , £ 4 , X 4 by 7) ; we 
obtain (ll') for c 2 = c z = — 1. Hence we have again obtained the quatern- 
ion algebra without assuming the associative law. The case n — 8 is 
being investigated in this way by one of my students. 
1 Frobenius, Jour, fur Math., 84, 1878 (59). 
2 Dickson, Linear Algebras, "Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics and Mathematical 
Physics," No. 16, 1914 (10-12). 
3 Dickson, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc, 22, 1915 (53-61). 
4 By (7), e 2 e-i = e 3 e 2 = 0. 
5 Lagrange, Nouv. Mem. Acad. Roy. Sc. de Berlin, annee 1770, Berlin, 1772 (123-133) ; 
Oeuvres de Lagrange, 3, 1869 (189). Reproduced in Dickson's History of the Theory 
of Numbers, II, 1920 (279-281). 
6 Dickson, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc, 13, 1912 (65). 
. 7 Dickson, Annals of Math., 20, 1919 (155-171, 297). 
8 Dickson, Comptes Rendus du Congres Internat. Math., Strasbourg, 1920 (131-146) . 
NOVOCAINE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR CURARE 1 
By John F. Fulton, Jr. 
Harvard University 
Communicated by G. H. Parker, March 3, 1921 
Since the recent war, the need of a substitute for the Indian arrow poison, 
curare, has been keenly felt in many physiological laboratories. While 
investigating the activity of certain local anesthetics, it was found that 
novocaine, in its effect upon the neuro-muscular mechanism of frogs, 
duplicates in many particulars the unique action of curare. 
If the sciatic nerve of a sciatic-gastrocnemius preparation is bathed in 
a strong solution of novocaine (2.5 per cent in water or in physiological 
salt solution) for as long as twenty minutes, no decrease in its conduc- 
tivity can be observed. However, if the muscle itself is bathed in such a 
solution (by direct immersion or, "painting" with a camel's hair brush) the 
power of reacting to nervous stimulation is destroyed within three to 
five minutes, though ability to respond by contraction to direct electrical 
stimulation remains unimpaired. Thus, in the action of novocaine there 
is a complete duplication of the properties originally described by Claude 
Bernard for curare. 
Whether novocaine acts directly upon the end-plates of the motor 
fibers or upon some membrane intermediate between the plates and the 
1 Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology at Harvard College. No. 330. 
