Scientific American Suppl. No. 299
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Various >> Scientific American Suppl. No. 299
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On the other hand, while there is a notable increase in the demand for
the article, there is a gradual but very sure and noticeable falling off
in the production.
At present the supply for the whole world comes from the candlemakers
of Europe--chiefly France and Germany--and, as improved methods of
illumination push candles out of the drawing rooms of the wealthier as
well as the cabins of the poor, and consequently out of the markets, the
production of glycerine naturally grows less. In France, for instance,
candles are coming to be regarded among the wealthy chiefly as articles
of luxury, and are lighted only for display at festivals of especial
magnificence and ceremony, while among the poor the kerosene lamp is
coming into almost as universal use as here.
To be sure, the inexorable inn-keeper still keeps up, we believe, the
inevitable _bougie_, but even that is fast becoming more of a fiction
than ever. Even in the churches, it is said, the use of candles is
gradually falling off. To these causes must be attributed the decreasing
supply of the crude material, but it may be doubted whether this
decrease would be sufficient to materially affect the price for some
time to come were it not for the increased demand for the two industries
to which we have alluded. Obviously, there must be found eventually some
substitute for glycerine, or else some new source from which it may be
procured. The natural place to look for this would be in the waste
lye from the soapmakers' boilers, but so far no one has succeeded in
obtaining from this substance the glycerine it undoubtedly contains by
any process sufficiently cheap to allow of its profitable employment.
We are assured by a veteran soap-boiler who has experimented much in
this direction that it is impossible to recover a marketable article of
glycerine from the lees of soap in which resin is an ingredient. In his
words, it "kills the glycerine," and, as none but a few of the finest
soaps are now made without resin, it would seem that the search for
glycerine in this direction must be a hopeless one. It is a curious
commentary in the present state of affairs that previous to about 1857,
when candles were largely manufactured in this country, there was little
or no demand for glycerine, and millions of pounds of it were run
into the sewers. Even then, however, the use of it as a wholesome and
pleasant article of diet was known to the workmen employed in the candle
factories, who were accustomed to drink freely of the mingled glycerine
and water which constituted the waste from the candles. Yet with this
fact under their noses, as it were, it is only recently that members of
the medical profession have begun to recommend the same use of glycerine
as a substitute for cod liver oil.--_Pharmacist_.
* * * * *
ANALYSIS OF OILS, OR MIXTURES OF OILS, USED FOR LUBRICATING PURPOSES.
Oils, fats, waxes, and bodies somewhat similar in nature, may--according
to the substance of a paper recently read before the Chemical Society,
by Mr. A. H. Allen, of Sheffield, and Mr. Thomson, of Manchester--be
divided into two great classes, viz., those which combine with soda,
potash, or other alkalies to form soaps, and those which do not; and
as those two classes of bodies differ materially in their actions on
substances such as iron, copper, etc., with which they come in contact,
it often becomes a question of great importance to the users of oils
for lubricating purposes to know what proportions of these different
substances are contained in any oil or mixture of oils. The object of
the authors was to give accurate methods for determining the percentages
of these bodies contained in any sample. Hydrocarbon or mineral oils are
now much used for lubricating the cylinders of engines, and especially
of condensing engines, and that for two reasons--first, because they are
neutral bodies, which have no action on metals; and, second, that they
are not liable to deposit on the boilers, if they should happen to be
introduced with the condensed water so as to produce burning of the
ironwork over the flues.
Animal or vegetable oils or fats are composed of fatty acids in
combination with glycerine, and these, under the influence of
high-pressure steam, are decomposed or dissociated, the fatty acids
being liberated from the glycerine, leaving the former to act upon or
corrode the iron of the cylinder. But here their objectionable influence
does not end. They form with the iron hard, insoluble compounds called
iron soaps, which increase the friction between the cylinder and piston,
and in some cases gradually collect into the form of hard balls inside
the cylinder.
When the water is used over and over again a considerable proportion of
the fatty acids of the oils used for lubricating the piston is carried
over with the steam and is found in the condensed water which is
introduced into the boiler along with the water. Here it commences
action, which proves quite as injurious to the boiler as it does to the
cylinder, but in a different way. It acts upon the iron of the boiler
and on some of the lime salts which constitute the incrustation, forming
greasy iron and lime soaps, which prevent the water from coming into
absolute contact with it. Thus the heat cannot be drawn away quickly
enough by the water, and the plates thus coated above the flues are
liable to become burdened and weakened. This action has in many cases
gone on to such an extent that the flues have collapsed under the
pressure of the steam inside.
The authors give two different processes for the determination of animal
or vegetable oils or fats and hydrocarbon or other neutral oils. They
take a certain weight of the sample and boil it with twice its weight
of an eight per cent, solution of caustic soda in alcohol. The soda
combines with the fatty acids of the animal or vegetable oils forming
soaps; bicarbonate of soda is then added to neutralize the excess of
caustic soda; and, lastly, sand; and the whole is evaporated to dryness
at the temperature of boiling water. The dry mixture is then transferred
to a large glass tube, having a small hole in the bottom plugged with
glass wool to act as a filter, and light petroleum spirit--which boils
at about 150 deg. to 180 deg. Fahr.--is poured over it, till all the
neutral or unsaponifiable oil is dissolved out. In the other process no
sand is used, but the dry mixture is dissolved in water, and the soap
solution which holds the neutral oils in solution is treated with ether,
which dissolves out the neutral oil and then floats to the surface of
the liquid. The ether solution is then drawn off, and the ether in the
one case and petroleum spirit in the other are separated from the
dissolved oils by distillation, the last traces of these volatile
liquids being separated by blowing a current of filtered air through
the flask containing the neutral oil, which is then weighed and its
percentage on the original sample calculated.
All animal and vegetable oils yield a small quantity--about one per
cent.--of unsaponifiable fatty matter, which must be deducted from the
result obtained. Sperm oil, however, was found to be an exception,
because from its peculiar chemical constitution it yields nearly half
its weight of a greasy substance to the ether or to the petroleum
spirit. The substance, however, dissolved from sperm oil after
saponification has the appearance of jelly, when the ether or petroleum
spirit solution is concentrated and allowed to cool, and the presence of
sperm oil can thus be readily detected. Solid paraffin, heavy petroleum
or paraffin oils, and rosin oil--which is produced by the destructive
distillation of rosin--are not saponifiable, and yield about the whole
of the amount employed to the petroleum spirit or ether. Japan wax is
almost entirely saponifiable, while beeswax and spermaceti yield about
half their weights to the petroleum spirit or ether.
* * * * *
NITRITE OF AMYL.
Dr. Edgar Kurtz, of Florence, has found this medicament so useful in the
various aches and pains of every-day life that he has persuaded many
families of his acquaintance to keep it on hand as a domestic remedy. It
is an excellent external application for stomach-ache, colic, tooth ache
(whether nervous or arising from caries), neuralgia of the trigeminus,
of the cervico-brachial plexus, etc. It is superior to anything else
when inhaled in so-called angio-spastic hemicrania, giving rapid relief
in the individual paroxysms and prolonging the intervals between the
latter. No trial was made in cases of angio paralytic hemicrania, since
in this affection the drug would be physiologically contraindicated. It
has a very good effect in dysmenorrhoea, especially when occurring in
chlorotic girls; in mild cases external applications suffice, otherwise
the drug should be inhaled (when complicated with inflammatory
conditions of the uterus or appendages the results were doubtful or
negative). Its physiological action being that of a paralyzing agent of
the muscular tissue of the blood vessels, with consequent dilatation of
their caliber (most marked in the upper half of the body), nitrite of
amyl is theoretically indicated in all conditions of cerebral anaemia.
Practically it was found to be of much value in attacks of dizziness and
faintness occurring in anaemic individuals, as also in a fainting-fit
from renal colic, and in several cases of collapse during anaesthesia by
chloroform.
It has been recommended in asphyxia from drowning, hanging, and in
asphyxia of the new born, but the first indication in these cases is the
induction of artificial respiration, after the successful initiation of
which inhalations of nitrite of amyl doubtless assist in overcoming the
concomitant spasm of the smaller arteries.
One of the most important indications for the use of the drug is
threatening paralysis of the heart from insufficient compensation. In
such cases it is necessary to gain time until digitalis and alcoholics
can unfold their action, and here nitrite of amyl stands pre-eminent. A
single case in point will suffice to illustrate this. The patient was
suffering from mitral insufficiency, with irregular pulse, loss of
appetite, enlargement of the liver, and mild jaundice. Temporary relief
had been several times afforded by infusion of digitalis. In February,
1879, the condition of the patient suddenly became aggravated. The pulse
became very irregular and intermittent. The condition described as
delirium cordis presented itself, together with epigastric pulsation
and vomiting. Vigorous counter-irritation, by means of hot bottles
and sinapisms to the extremities, etc., proved useless. Digitalis and
champagne, when administered, were immediately vomited. The pulse ran up
from seventy until it could no longer be counted at the wrist, while
the beats of the heart increased to one hundred and twenty and more per
minute. The extremities grew cold, and the face became covered with
perspiration. The urine was highly albuminous. Nitrite of amyl was then
administered by inhalation: at first, three to five drops; then, ten to
twenty; and finally, more or less was poured on the handkerchief without
being measured. During each inhalation the condition of the patient
rapidly improved, but as quickly grew worse, so that the drug was
continued at short intervals all night, ten grammes in all having been
used. In the morning the patient was better, and 0.5 gramme of digitalis
was then given in infusion per rectum, and repeated on the following
day, after which the patient remained comparatively well until a year
and a half later, when a second attack of the kind just described was
quickly cut short by similar treatment.
Another noteworthy case was that of a robust man of thirty years, who
was attacked with acute gastro intestinal catarrh. The patient had
as many as one hundred watery evacuations in forty-eight hours, with
fainting fits, violent cramps in the calves of the legs, two attacks
of general convulsions--in short, he presented the picture of a person
attacked with cholera. Opium, champagne, hypodermic injections of
sulphuric ether, counter-irritation, etc., proved useless. The doctor
was on the point of injecting dilute liquor ammonii into the veins, but,
none being obtainable, it occurred to him to try nitrite of amyl as a
last resort. A considerable amount was poured on a handkerchief and held
before the patient's mouth and nose, while the legs were also rubbed
energetically with the same agent. Respiration soon became deeper and
more regular, while the pulse gradually returned at the wrist. These
procedures were repeated again and again, without regard to the quantity
of the drug used, as soon as the radial pulse became weaker, and kept
up until the patient complained of a sense of fullness in the head, and
requested the discontinuance of the drug. The evacuations became less
frequent, and in a week the patient was able to be up. Resuming then,
Kurz concludes that nitrite of amyl is indicated in cardiac affections
when the capillary circulation is obstructed and the cardiac muscle is
threatened with paralysis from overwork; further, in cases of impeded
circulation occasioned by cholera or severe diarrhea, particularly in
the so-called hydrocephaloid (false hydrocephalus) of children. It
is worthy of trial in tetanic and eclamptic seizures, and in tonic
angiospasms such as occur during the chill of malarial fevers, although
in the last-mentioned condition pilocarpine is perhaps more suitable,
provided the energy of the heart be unimpaired.
As regards the dose, Kurz's experience demonstrates that we need not
restrict ourselves to a few drops. The quantity may be increased, if
necessary, until symptoms of cerebral congestion show themselves, when
the drug should be momentarily or permanently discontinued. Usually from
three to five or ten drops are sufficient, sometimes even less. Kurz has
met with no unpleasant consequences, much less serious complications,
from the application of nitrite of amyl. But the drug is contraindicated
in cases associated with cerebral hyperaemia, in atheromatous conditions
of the arteries, and in the so-called plethoric state--_Beta's
Memoabilien, March 24, 1881_.
* * * * *
THE TREATMENT OF ACUTE RHEUMATISM.
By ALFRED STILLE, M.D.
The treatment of simple acute articular rheumatism may be abandoned to
palliatives and nature. Apart from complications, such cases nearly
always recover under rest and careful nursing. Try and disabuse
yourselves of the idea that their cure is dependent upon medicines
alone; to help nature is often the best we can do. No treatment was ever
invented which stopped a case of acute articular rheumatism. It cannot
be stopped by bleeding, or sweating, or purging, by niter, by tartar
emetic, by guaiacum, by alkalies, by salines, by salicylic acid, or by
anything else. The physician can palliate the pain and perhaps shorten
the attack, can control and perhaps prevent complications and stiffness
of the joints, but he cannot arrest the disease. Where rest, proper
diet, and warmth are enjoined, most cases will get well just as soon
without as with the use of medicinal methods. Dr. Austin Flint, Sr.,
of New York, in support of this statement, subjected some patients, a
number of years ago, to the expectant treatment, and found that they
made just as rapid and just as complete recoveries as did those cases
under the most active medication. Purgatives have been used in all ages
in the treatment of this disease, because it was thought to be a fever.
We are all but too ready to put our necks into the yoke of a theory. In
old times they thought that the system ought to be reduced. Before the
time of purgatives depletion was employed. This mode of treatment I will
not even discuss. There is no evidence of which I am cognizant in favor
of purgatives. There are very good reasons indeed why they should not be
used: (1) Because they cannot possibly cure; (2) because they oblige the
patient to make painful movements; and (3) because they expose him to
the dangers of cold. A celebrated London physician had all his patients
packed in blankets, and did not allow them to move a finger. This was
going to the other extreme. There are certain cases in which purgatives
are alleged to be of use, viz.: Those in which the bowels are
constipated, and there is a bitter taste in the mouth. I have never seen
such cases except in habitual drunkards, and in such cases a purgative
does more harm than allowing the effete matter to remain in the system.
Opium was once vaunted as a specific, and it was claimed that it
diminished the tendency to complications in the course of the disease.
Dr. Corrigan, of Dublin, said that large doses of opium were well
borne--say from four to twelve grains in the course of twenty-four
hours, or sometimes he advised giving as much as one grain every hour.
Opium so employed does not produce narcotism, and does not constipate
the bowels. More recent experience has shown that opium, of all
remedies, is the most likely to cause heart complications. Some have
recommended colchicum, arguing that because it does good in gout, it
must, therefore, do good in rheumatism. But colchicum is not a remedy
for rheumatism. Many years ago it was very much the custom to administer
large doses of powdered Peruvian bark. The rationale of these large
doses was founded upon their sedative effect. Haygrath, Morton,
Heberden, and Fothergill were the first to employ this method. Later
still, a number of noted French physicians, among them Briquet, Andral,
Monerat, and Legroux, renewed the use of this medicine in the form of
quinia, but gave it in smaller doses, seeking only its tonic effect,
from five to fifteen grains being administered in the course of
twenty-four hours, and then it was still continued in smaller doses.
Still more recently, quinia taking the place of Peruvian bark, the old
plan of administering large doses has been resumed. From thirty all the
way up to one hundred grains have been administered in the course of
twenty-four hours. Never was there a more profligate waste of a precious
medicine. Even the physicians who so used it were obliged to acknowledge
that it only did good in sub-acute and mild cases. I believe that it has
also been fashionable in the so called cases of hyperpyrexia to immerse
the patient in a bath varying in temperature from 60 deg. to 98 deg. Fahr.
Although patients thus treated sometimes recovered, they also sometimes
perished from congestion of the lungs and brain.
Among cardiac and nervous sedatives, digitalis, veratrum album and
viride, veratria and aconite, have each, at one time or other, been
employed indiscriminately. Such treatment, of course, has only proven
itself to be a monument of rashness to those who employed it. Such
sedatives may reduce the pulse, but do not shorten the disease. Indeed,
if it is possible to prove the absurdity of anything more clearly by
mere enumeration of these medicines as cures for rheumatism, I do not
know of it. Do digitalis and aconite act in the same manner? This is
just one expression of the folly which surrounded the use of digitalis
at the time of its discovery. Then every affection of the heart was
treated with digitalis.
Within the last few years new remedies have been proclaimed in the shape
of salicylic acid and its sodium salt. I confess that I possess no
personal knowledge of their use in this disease, for I was at first
dissuaded from employing them by a prejudice against the grounds on
which they were recommended, and more recently by the contradictory
judgments respecting them, and the unquestionable mischief they have
sometimes caused. According to their eulogists, the arrest of the
disease is secured by them within four or five days, whether the attack
be febrile or not; its mortality was diminished; relapses do not occur
if the medicine is continued until full convalescence; it is without
influence on the heart complications already existing, but it tends
to prevent them as well as other serious inflammations. One of these
gentlemen assures us that to say it far excels any other method of
treatment would be to give it but scant praise. But, upon the other
hand, it is accused of producing disorders, and even grave accidents in
almost all the functions of the economy. In some cases it has produced
ringing in the ears or deafness, or a rapid pulse, or an excessively
high temperature, panting respiration, profuse perspiration,
albuminuria, delirium, and imminent collapse. In one published case this
anti-pyretic did not lower, but, on the contrary, seemed actually to
raise the temperature so high that immediately after death it stood at
110 deg. F. Many, very many, analogous cases have been published. I repeat,
therefore, that I am personally unacquainted with the effects of this
medicine in acute articular rheumatism, and that I have not thus far
been tempted to employ it.
It may be difficult to see the connection between blisters and alkalies
in their power to influence the course of acute articular rheumatism,
and yet it is certain that they do so influence it, and in the same way,
_i. e._, by altering the condition of the blood from acid to alkaline.
If you ask me to explain to you how blisters act in this way I am
obliged to confess my ignorance. To produce this result they must be
applied over all the affected joints. Experience, if not science, has
decided conclusively in their favor. They do effect a cessation of the
local symptoms, render the urine alkaline, and diminish the amount of
fibrin in the blood.
This brings us to a consideration of the use of alkalies. Alkalies
neutralize the acids, act as diuretics, and eliminate the _materies
morbi_. Alone, and in small doses, they are unable to influence the
course of the disease; but when given in very large doses their effects
are marvelous; the pulse falls, the urine is increased in quantity and
becomes alkaline, and the inflammation subsides. The symptoms of the
disease are moderated, the duration of the attack is shortened, and the
cardiac complications are prevented. The dose of the alkalies must
be increased until the acid secretions are neutralized. A very good
combination of these remedies is the following:
Rx. Sodae bicarb 3 iss.
Potas. acet 3 ss.
Acid. cit f. 3 ss.
Aquae f. 3 ij. [1]
[Transcribers note 1: Could also be '2/3 ij.']
S. This dose should be repeated every three or four hours, until the
urine becomes alkaline. On the subsidence of the active symptoms two
grains of quinine may be added with advantage to each dose. The alkalies
must be gradually discontinued, but the quinia continued. The diet
should consist of beef tea or broth, with bread and milk; no solid food
should be allowed. Woolen cloths, moistened with alkaline solutions, may
with advantage be applied to the affected joints. To these laudanum
may be added for its anodyne effect. The patient must be sedulously
protected from vicissitudes of the temperature and be in bed between
blankets. The alkaline treatment relieves the pain, abates the fever,
and saves the heart by lessening the amount of fibrin in the blood. A
long time ago Dr. Owen Rees, of London, introduced the use of lemon
juice. This remedy was thought to convert uric acid into urea, and to
so help elimination. Though the treatment is practically correct, the
theory of it is all wrong. Lemon juice does good in mild cases, but
cannot be relied upon in severe attacks. During the febrile stage of
acute articular rheumatism the diet should consist mainly of farinaceous
and mucilaginous preparations, with lemonade and carbonic acid water as
drinks. The cloths applied to the joints should be changed when they
become saturated with sweat, and in changing them the patient should be
protected from the air. The sweating may be controlled by small doses
of atropia, from the one-sixtieth to the one-thirtieth of a grain. To
prevent subsequent stiffness the joints should be bathed with warm oil
and chloroform, and wrapped in flannel cloths. In the proper season this
condition is very well treated by sea-bathing. There is no specific plan
of treatment in acute articular rheumatism. The treatment pursued
must vary according to the intensity of the inflammation and the
peculiarities of the patients.--_Medical Gazette_.
* * * * *
METHOD IN MADNESS.
No psychologist has hitherto been able, and probably it is impossible,
to define _madness_, or to give a clearly marked indication of the
boundary line between sanity and insanity. Mental soundness is merged
in unsoundness by degrees of decadence which are so small as to be
practically inappreciable. It is with the mind-state which precedes the
development of recognized form of insanity the therapeutist and the
social philosopher are chiefly interested. Although in individual cases
the subject of mental derangement may, as the phrase runs, "go mad"
suddenly, speaking generally insanity is a symptom occurring in the
course of disease, and, commonly, not until the malady of which it is
the expression has made some progress. Those mental disturbances which
consist in a temporary aberration of brain function, and which are the
accidents of instability, rather than the effects of developed or even
developing neuroses, can scarcely be classed as insanity; although it is
true, and in an important sense, that these passing storms of excitement
or spells of moody depression may--acting reflexly on the cerebral and
nervous centers, as all mind-states and mind-movements react--exert a
morbific influence and lay the physical bases of mental disease. The
consideration most practical to the community and germane to the
question of public safety is, that in any and every population there
must exist a dangerously large proportion of persons who are always in
a condition of mind to be injuriously influenced by any force which
powerfully affects them. As a matter of history, it would seem that the
majority of such persons are controlled rather than morbidly excited by
the opportunity of throwing themselves into any popular movement. They
may suffer afterward for the stimulation they receive at the time of
public commotions, but while these are in progress they link their own
consciousness with that of other minds, and the tendency to develop
individual eccentricities of mental action is thereby for the moment
repressed or exhausted. It is in the intervals of great public
excitement the peace is disturbed by the vagaries of criminals who are
more or less reasonably suspected of being "insane."
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