PILOCARPIN AND ITS ACTION IN CHANGING THE COLOR OF THE HUMAN HAIR. By D. W. PRENTISS, of Washington, D. C.

[ABSTRACT1.]

PILOCARPIN is an alkaloid of jaborandi and the active principle. Jaborandi is a Brazilian drug recently introduced into medicine. The leaves are the officinal part of the plant (Pilocarpus pennatifolius). The effect upon the human system is powerful and peculiar. It produces profuse sweating and profuse salivation, and stimulates the growth of the hair.

Two cases were reported. In the first case, the medicine was given to relieve uræmia, consequent upon suppression of urine due to Chronic Pyelitis. The patient was a lady, twenty-five years of age, a blonde of petite figure.

The pilocarpin (hydrochlorate) was administered by hypodermic injection commencing Dec. 16, 1880, and being continued at intervals until Feb. 22, 1881. The usual dose given was one centigram, but on several occasions this dose was doubled. The object of its use was to eliminate urea from the system by sweating and salivation.

The immediate effect produced was profuse sweating and salivation calculated to amount to not less than fourteen pints. (See Phila. Med. Times July 2, 1881.)

The result to the patient on each occasion was great exhaustion, but the uræmic symptoms were relieved. Twenty-two "sweats" were administered in all, and from thirty-five to forty centigrams of pilocarpin were used.

CHANGES IN THE COLOR OF THE HAIR.

Specimens of the hair were exhibited to the section, as also a colored plate showing the changes in color. Two specimens, dated respectively, Nov. 1879 and Nov. 1880, were of a very light color tinged with yellow, and showed that the color of the hair had not changed during that year.

The third specimen dated Jan. 12, 1881 was a chestnut brown and the fourth, dated May 1881, almost pure black.

The administration of the pilocarpin began Dec. 16, 1880; the

This paper is printed in full, with a colored plate, in the Cincinnati Lancet and Clinic of Sept. 3, 1881.

change was first noticed Dec. 28, 1880, and was thenceforth progressive.

In addition to change of color the hair has become thicker and coarser than formerly, and while previously dry, it is now quite oily.

The hair on other parts of the body is also changed in color. The eyes have become a much darker blue.

In the second case, the pilocarpin was administered to an infant fourteen months of age, afflicted with membranous croup. (See Phila. Times, Aug. 13, 1881.)

The treatment was commenced June 9, 1881; two milligrams of hydrochlorate of pilocarpin being given every hour, afterwards increased to four milligrams every hour. It was administered for nine days, the amount being diminished towards the last.

The first specimen of hair was taken June 17, 1881, and the second, June 27, 1881. The color of the first is light yellow, and the second is a decided shade darker.

This effect, of changing the color of the hair, if subsequent experience shall confirm it, adds another to the marvellous influences of jaborandi on the human system.

The modus operandi of the change is still to be determined. It is probably connected with the fact that jaborandi stimulates the nutrition of the hair.

There appears to be reason to believe that the color of hair is due to an oily pigment, and that this is increased under the influence of jaborandi.

Shaving the scalp usually has the effect of making the hair thicker and darker. On the contrary, as age advances, and the processes of nutrition are enfeebled, the hair becomes thin, dry and whitens.

THE SUCCESSFUL ADMINISTRATION OF NITROUS OXIDE, AS AN ANESTHETIC FOR DENTAL AND SURGICAL OPERATIONS. By E. P. HOWLAND, of Washington, D. C.

[ABSTRACT.]

THE Successful administration of nitrous oxide consists in administering it to patients in such a manner that during operations they will not suffer pain and that they will be in such a condition

that the dentist or surgeon can successfully perform the operation, and afterwards that the patients are found not to be injured by its administration.

The first requisite for success is that the nitrous oxide should not have more than one per cent. of pure oxygen or three per cent. of atmospheric air, and that it should be perfectly free from all other gases or vapors. Nitrous oxide with two per cent. or more of pure oxygen or five per cent. or more of atmospheric air will not produce perfect anæsthesia, and the patient will feel the pain of the operation and pronounce the gas a failure. The adding of one per cent. of pure oxygen to nitrous oxide has the benefit of partially oxygenating the blood and in a measure preventing the spasmodic action of the muscles and at the same time producing satisfactory anæsthesia. According to experiments made in France by P. Bert, ten per cent. of oxygen or fifty per cent. of atmospheric air can be added to nitrous oxide to oxygenate the blood and at the same time produce perfect anæsthesia if it is breathed in a chamber under a pressure of two atmospheres. A certain amount of nitrous oxide taken into the lungs is necessary to produce insensibility; and it can be diluted with any innocuous gas and still produce anæsthesia, provided this amount is inhaled in the given time. Under pressure in a chamber more gas is breathed in a given time as the nitrous oxide is condensed the same as the air in the chamber, and under a pressure of two atmospheres two volumes of nitrous oxide would be condensed into one volume so that the nitrous oxide could be diluted with equal measures of atmospheric air, and still the quantity of nitrous oxide inhaled would be the same as if breathed ordinarily, and the quantity of oxygen breathed sufficient to arterialize the blood. Rapid breathing of nitrous oxide produces quick anæsthesia, but nothing is gained by it in practice. It is very difficult to produce anaesthesia with nitrous oxide at high elevations above the ocean, because the low pressure of the atmosphere allows the gas to expand so that a less quantity is taken into the lungs in a given time than is required to produce insensibility. Valve inhalers have generally proved a failure because they admit atmospheric air with the gas in sufficient quantity to prevent perfect anæsthesia. As near as I can ascertain more than one-half of all the dentists of the United States who have used nitrous oxide have abandoned its use on account of want of success in producing satisfactory insensibility,

One

and thereby injuring instead of benefiting their practice. cause of failure is the unskilful administration of the gas in allowing air to be inhaled with it, by not having the lips closed tight around the inhaler, and other causes; not using the nose as a valve for expiration exactly at the right time, not stopping the administration at the point of greatest anesthesia, and not having sufficient self-possession under all circumstances and emergencies to know just what to do and when to do it. But the greatest cause is the failure to produce perfect anæsthesia from the mixture of atmospheric air in the nitrous oxide that has been kept in a gasometer over water for a few days. The gas becomes mixed with air through the medium of the water and defective gasometers and cocks.

The trouble and cost of making fresh gas every few days has caused the great abandonment of its use. Skilful administrators who have a large practice and use gas before it is deteriorated by air are making nitrous oxide a success. Other dentists can make gas a success by obtaining it condensed in cylinders when the gas will keep unadulterated and unchanged for years.

The only drawback to a paying success is the present great cost of the condensed gas, which in the small cylinders amounts to about thirty-five cents for each administration, when the gas can be made in the dentist's laboratory for about three and a half cents for each administration. An apparatus can now be obtained that enables each dentist to make and condense his own gas and keep it for any length of time. Physicians and surgeons do not use nitrous oxide on account of the trouble and cost of making and keeping it, and the greater amount of practice and skill required in its successful administration than the more dangerous ether and chloroform. Nitrous oxide requires a costly apparatus to manufacture it and bulky receptacles from which to administer it, and the gas is for sale in but two places in the United States, while ether and chloroform can be carried in a bottle in the pocket and purchased at every drug store in the land. Nitrous oxide can be administered with almost absolute safety, while ether and chloroform can point to their victims in every city and hospital. Money, labor and skill can make nitrous oxide successful with both dentist and surgeon, and taking into account the value of human life, nitrous oxide should stand at the head of all anæsthetics, and its practical use be encouraged instead of ether and chloroform.

I have administered nitrous oxide in over thirty thousand cases for dental and surgical operations and have had uniform success. I have never had a case of injury from lung or heart disease, but in many cases of throat and lung diseases a marked and permanent improvement. I have kept a large number of patients perfectly anæsthetic for surgical operations from five to thirty-five minutes, and the pulse during these operations has been nearly uniform and full. The success of prolonged operations consists in first producing perfect anæsthesia, and then breathing air to arterialize the blood and before consciousness returns again breathing nitrous oxide, the necessary intervals varying in different patients from one-fourth to one-half minute. The average length of time occupied in dental operations from the first commencement of breathing the gas till return of consciousness has been two minutes. To encourage and make nitrous oxide a greater success in the future, the dental and medical colleges should employ successful operators to lecture and instruct graduates so that the particular knowledge and skill acquired by them in practice, can be learned by others.

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THE UNIFICATION OF GEOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE.2

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RECENT DISCOVERIES, MEASUREMENTS, AND TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS, MADE IN MAMMOTH CAVE, KY.3 By H. C. Hovey, of New Haven, Conn.

THE LIFE UNIT IN PLANTS. By Byron D. Halsted, of New York, N. Y.

1 Printed in full in Chicago Tribune of Aug. 25, 1881.

2 An abstract of this paper is printed in Science for Sept. 17, 1881.

3 Printed in the Scientific American of Oct. 8 and 29, 1881.