230  Abstracts  from  the  French  Journals.  {Am*M^?imrm" 
The  action  of  Cocaine  upon  blood  constituents  has  been  studied  by 
Professor  E.  Maurel,  who  reported  to  the  Academie  des  sciences  de 
Toulouse,  Jan.  28,  1892,  his  conclusions.  He  states  that  in  doses 
which  do  not  affect  the  blood-corpuscles,  the  leucocytes  are  killed  : 
this  effect  is  produced  by  010  to  020  gm.  of  the  salt  for  100  gm. 
of  blood,  equal  to  about  I  kilo,  of  bodyweight.  About  005  gm.  of 
the  salt  causes  changes  in  the  leucocytes,  but  their  vitality  is  not 
destroyed.  Doses  of  0  05  to  o  10  gm.  of  cocaine  hydrochloride, 
repeatedly  administered,  are  sufficient  for  killing  the  leucocytes  of 
from  50  to  75  gm.  of  blood.  The  death  of  the  leucocytes  may 
account  for  some  of  the  accidents  which  appear  after  such  injections 
Albumonc  is  a  new  proteid  isolated  from  blood  by  C.  Chabrie 
ifCompt.  rend.,  cxiii,  557),  by  neutralizing  the  serum  with  acetic 
acid,  coagulating  and  evaporating  at  ioo°  C,  extracting  the  residue 
with  hot  distilled  water,  and  precipitating  the  solution  with  alcohol. 
Albumone  is  not  coagulated  by  heat  or  acetic  acid,  and  has  .no 
saccharifying  action  on  starch ;  its  solution  is  precipitated  by  phos- 
photungstic  acid,  mercuric  nitrate,  Millon's  reagent  and  by  sodium 
sulphate,  also  by  ammonium  phosphomolybdate  on  heating  ;  the 
precipitate  with  nitric  acid  is  readily  soluble  in  excess,  and  the 
acetic  acid  solution  is  rendered  turbid  by  potassium  ferrocyanide. 
Pcnghaivar-dfambi,  the  hair  like  chaff  of  Ciboiium  Baromcz  is 
again  recommended  as  a  valuable  hemostatic  by  Barille  {Rep.  de 
Pilar.,  Feb.  10,  1892),  and  considered  to  be  preferable  to  pakn- 
kidang,  on  account  of  the  fineness  of  the  tubular  hairs,  the  haemo- 
static action  being  purely  mechanical.  It  is  very  useful  in  epistaxis, 
if  introduced  into  the  nostril  in  form  of  a  tampon. 
Hemostatic  effects  of  atropine. — Dr.  Dmitrieff  ( Wratch,  through 
Bull.  gen.  Therap.  1892,  236)  used  atropine  hypodermically,  with 
beneficial  results,  in  two  cases  of  hemorrhage,  which  would  not 
yield  to  the  usual  remedies.  One  of  the  cases  reported  was  one  of 
uterine  hemorrhage.  The  dose  of  atropine  used  was  0-3  mgm.  for 
each  injection. 
Physiological  action  of  Kola  nut. — Drs.  Monavon  and  Perroud 
(Lyon  medical,  Nov.  15,  1 89 1 ),  from  experiments  on  dogs  draw  the 
following  conclusions  as  to  the  physiological  action  of  kola  nut  and 
its  constituents.  (1)  Kola  nut  is  rather  an  anuretic  than  a  diuretic. 
(2)  The  elimination  of   nitrogenous    bodies   and    phosphates  is 
