SCIENCE NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 118, 14 November 1925, Page 13

SCIENCE NOTES

THE TOUCH THAT COUNTS

VAGARIES OF THE BRAIN

NEW LOCAL ANAESTHETIC.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 7th October.

A new class of local' anaesthetic known as Borocaines, much less toxic and often exerting ten times tho power of the original compounds from which they are derived, has been, evolved by Mr. A. J. Copeland,, "Ernest Hart" Memorial Scholar of the British Medical, Association, and Mr. H. E. F. Norton, of the Cambridge Pharmacology and Chemistry /Laboratories. The results of their, researches are described in the' current issue of tho "British Medical Journal."

"To determine the factors concerned in surface anaesthesia," they -state, "was the main line of tho work. Eventually, it appeared 1 that the essential information required was why

'novbeain,' the least toxic of the anaesthetics, lost, its virtues when applied to a surface. Having followedup this piece "of research, there were evolved compounds from the original hydrochlorides which gave the,desired results." The properties of the most generally useful, borate-ethocaine, it is stated^ show it to have great advantage over many anaesthetics. It is stable and freely soluble in cold water. The specific gravity of a 5 per cent, solution being high, it is of great use in spinal operations'. It is non-irritant, its toxity is practically negligible, and where injections under the skin are reqt'-ed it is just as effective as. ethocaihe-hydrochloride and adrenaline.; The objection has been made to it that it dilates vessels, but this, it is pointed out, can lie overcome readily by the use of the latter drug.

HOMOEOPATHIC CONGRESS

In his presidential address at the annual congress of the British Homoeopathic. Association, Dr. B. W. Nankivell said- that for years homoeopathy had been cold-shouldered by empiricists of the so-called orthodox school, whilst a really scientific exposition ■of disease and its cure lay open to them. \How far had they advanced? It was left to Louis Pasteur to establish the germ theory; Joseph' Lister developed' this along the line of antisepsis, which saved many lives, anct this was displaced later on by asepsis. During the last decade the, germ theory had been run to death in the school; of ■ Sir Almrotlr Wright, and a vaccine was now the cure for most of the' unlikely ailments. He did not think' they: had cut the ground from beneath the .feet of, homoeopaths, for' homoeopathic teaching, literature, and materia medica had kept pace with the times. What was the latest phase in medicine? They had, more or less, recovered from oral sepsis, and were willing to admit that it was not the origin of every disease. Touching on the question of vitamines, he asked were not the .orthodox-led by the nose in this matter, .and the .willing victims of the analytical icliemist and, patent food vendor? In deficiency diseases, he declared, there was a chance for organotherapy. Homoeopathic medicines were undoubtedly a help in' these diseases, and the results of the work in the London i Homoeopathic Hospital proved this. . As to the future, Dr. Nankivell said Hahnemanh hacl bequeathed a rich legacy,' and they must' prove them-, selves worthy! of it. Before admission to membership of the Homoeopathic Association candidates were required to pass three stages of associateship. Hahnemann proved dozens of medir cines on himself. Why should not d&ch associate be required* to prove or reprove a drug, and thus steadily increase the knowledge of materia medica and drug symptoms. '■;.

HUMAN TOUCH IN MEDICINE

' Major lan Hay Beith ("lan Hay), novelist and playwright, greatly amused the students at the opening of the winter session of Guy's Hospital Medical School Hvhen he delivered a discourse on "The Human Touch' in Professional Life : " remarking that by the title -he meant 1 character 'of personality as compared with technical knowledge and ability. There was a general and diingerous tendency in the world to-day,.he said, to exploit the "personality stunt" to an- absurd degree, to the neglect. and detriment; of real training and thorough knowledge. We lived in an age of advertisement, an age where people were tending" more and more to expand their energies, not, upon putting quality into their goods, but of thinking out ingenious and profitable meth-ods-of disposing of the goods. Ho spoke with some feeling in the matter, because he was the possessor of twenty-eight'volumes, in half-moroe-cd, of an obsolete encyclopaedia which he was recently dragooned into buying on the instalment system. It was the human touch which -counted, and'especially so in the cultivation of. the healing art. As much healing was produced by suggestion as by physic. A doctor was always playing a part—backing up the resources of science by the arts of the skilled advocate, mixing the powder and the jam in such proportions that the powder escaped notice but achieved its purpose. "Once a definite cause has been assigned to a patient's ailment," said Major Beith, "once you have hung a label on it marked in plain figures, and given him something physical to hold on to, he will endure ilinbst anything. Tell him something to keep his imagination from soaring into the regions of unhealthy speculation. It is a go'bd plan sometimes to be. symbolic. You can refer to trouble in his engine-room, or explain that his dynamo requires tuning up, or his accumulators recharging, or that an overstrained spring must be relaxed. Something tangible and concrete like that —something he can bito on. Tell him that ho has a Rolli-Royce body, but that there is water in the carburettor, or that his petrol pressure is faulty. That will cheer him up more than to inform him baldly that his malady is functional and not organic. It is a strange thing the amount of solid comfort a nervous person can derive from having his interior compared to that of a motor-car—es-pecially if you tell him he's a RollsRoyce."

CAPACITY OF THE BRAIN

Sir Arthur Keith delivered a striking address, to students at. King's College Hospital. . ' . '■■' , "Mo*t of us/'-hc said,"who take to

habitual study have to pay the price, and the more we give our stomachs to do the higher is the price we have to pay. For your encouragement I would say this, that I know of no student who would exchange a regulated brain for the healthy appetite of the mental sluggard. The majority of eminent scholars have no scholarly lineage. They come from Highland glena, Welsh hillsides, English country villages, the first of their kind so far as they can toll who ever devoted their lives to the cause of learning. There must te throughout the length and breadth of our land immense and virgin fields of untapped scholarly, talent." "By habitual study," Sir Arthur concluded, "you may outrun your physical endurance; you m^y damage your bodies if you neglect,to exercise them; butVyou will certainly not damage your brain. You will never succeed in using your brain up to its full capacity. Fqr my own part I use sleep as my barometer; when I begin to find that sleep comes to me with sluggard stepsj or if there is a tendency for my mind to race, I slack off. - There is no greater nonsense talked than »that brain work may bring on brain fever. Our brains have moods and tempers. Like horses or the' engines of motor-cars, they have to warm up before they work smoothly and easily. The start is always the most difficult phasa to manage. Often we are u.ncer T tain when our brains act sluggishly whether pressure will warm, them iip to steady pitch or whether it is wiser to lay science or stiff reading aside and take to fiction. The healing power of a debauch of fiction is often marvellous in its results. The best brains are not like cart-horses, which will do a turn at any hour; like racehorses,, they have their times off and their times on."

SUNBATHS AT HOME

Scientific investigations bearing en the gas industry have been. advanced another stage by the opening of new central research laboratories at Radiation House, 15, Grosvenor place. In recent years, and consequent mainly en successful'research work carried on by British' firms in their own: laboratories, great development has taken place in the use of gas for heating and cooking. Half a dozen "years ago several of! these firms amalgamated as "Radiation Limited," for the purpose of co-ordinating in a central laboratory the work of the different scattered laboratories. This development has now been-carried a step further'with a view to isolating the pure research work from tho more immediately practical work with which the factory laboratories have to deal. One of the greatest achievements of the researcher so far-has been practically to overcome the mischief arising from incomplete combustion—the mischief of poisonous fumes. There is in this new laboratory an apparatus for detecting carbon monoxide when it is. present only to the extent of one or two parts per million. ' . . .. ■ „ .

But other discoveries as great are hoped for. It' is proposed to carry on' investigations with -a"'View- to approximating the emanations from gas fires to. the emanations, from the sun, , so that any individual may indulge in the pleasures of a sunbath, or its closest imitation, in, bis own room. "This," says Mr. H. J. Yafes, "is no idle fancy, nor even a" rcmoto dream, The 'ate Dr. Dallinger often: deferred .to coal is 'bottled sunshine, an J''.with our gas fire we are obtaining the agency of coalgas radiant heat representing a reconversion into rays of the sun of some of the energy stored in the original coal.,'" 85, Fleet street.