ORIGINAL RESEARCH, EXPERIMENTAL AND

INDUCTIVE.

"Dire n'est rien; faire est tout."-RENAN.

ON PHOSPHORUS EREMACAUSIS, AND ON AN ATTEMPTED SYNTHESIS OF PUS FROM NERVOUS MATTER.

N preparing the essay published in last ASCLEPIAD on "The Cerebro-spinal Axis as a Thermal Centre and Water Power," I began, as readers

of that essay will find, to experiment with phosphorus in a novel manner, namely, by using it, in a state of refined distribution, as the starting point for the oxidation of organic substances, and specially of cerebral substance, cortical and medullary. The practice thus originated has opened up a new field of inquiry, which bids fair to yield varied and useful results, results sometimes altogether unexpected. Hitherto physiologists, in treating of phosphorus as an elementary constituent of animal bodies, have thought of it in two directions only as a constructive element and as a toxic element. By its presence in brain structure and bone structure, it is seen to play an important part in composition of tissue; and by its constant presence in many of the colloidal structures, it is assumed to have some important but undefined use in their organisation. Again,

by the effects which it produces on living animal bodies when introduced into them in toxic proportions, it has been found to interfere with the chemical changes natural to organic function, and to induce degenerations specific in character. The late Professor Köhler, of Halle, in an essay on this last-named topic,* followed up these researches of tissue degeneration, tracing out carefully the phosphorus fatty degenerations and those especially which are presented in the liver. Several of us engaged in recording the diseases incident to industrial pursuits have also described the phenomena of phosphorus necrosis; and Dr. J. Mertens in 1860 reported an instance in which phosphorus applied to a wound caused a peculiar gangrene, like the gangrene of aged people, so that he was obliged to amputate the fingers of a hand in which this disease had been produced. The late Dr. Stokes, of Dublin, has also detailed the particulars of a case of phosphorescence of the breast of a woman, in which the phosphorised structure gave out a sufficient luminosity to enable small print to be read by it when all the surrounding space was in darkness.

But these observations, instructive as they are, have no relation to the question I have been led to ask. The question that came to my mind was whether phosphorus mixed in intimate and infinite subdivision with organic substances, or with inorganic substances that will undergo oxidation under favourable circumstances, will oxidise in the mere presence of oxygen and by that oxidation set. up further oxidation in other oxidisable elements, and so by eremacausis lead to changes similar to, or identical with, those changes which we call vital.

In the paper on the cerebro-spinal axis I touched, in the briefest way, on this point: in the passage where it is

* An essay he was so good as to dedicate to me, shortly before his early and lamented death.-B. W. R.

suggested (section 8 of the summary, p. 386) that there are two distinct combustions going on in the animal body; one, the central or nervous combustion of low tension and pressure; the other, the combustion which yields the sensible heat of the body, and which is of higher tension, but which is nevertheless probably dependent on the central combustion for its continued existence, for its being kept alight. As if, to explain now more simply, the ends or terminations of nerves were the sparks or points of light by which living combustion is maintained; and as if the animal fire of a part would go out if the nervous cord feeding the part were entirely cut off.

NATURE AND METHOD OF NEW RESEARCH BY PHOSPHORUS OXIDATION.

This new inquiry, when once the idea of it is conceived, is simple enough as a research. By mixing phosphorus, in refined and infinitely fine distribution, with numerous inanimate organic bodies-carbons, in some conditions, or hydrocarbons-and then bringing the mixture into the presence of oxygen, it is easy to create a spontaneous combustion by which a motor force is obtainable. What then if this same combustion were excited in complex organic compounds? Such an experimental pursuit has a good basis to rest on, and could hardly fail to lead to some curious and useful result, whatever that might be; and on that basis I have pursued my way.

That phosphorus, in combination with oxygen and with metallic bases, enters the body with food, and is distributed into the tissues for various uses, is a wellknown fact; but the modes of its distributions and the reductions it undergoes form a subject of inquiry that has never as yet been carried out. This would be an analytical experimental study of the utmost value, and

one I shall be inclined to follow up. For the present I have to refer to a synthetical research to ascertain what part phosphorus may play as an excitor of chemical decompositions in organic substances by virtue of its affinity for oxygen; a kind of repetition of a course I once took with sodium and potassium, when by setting them free from their ethylates in moist animal tissues I produced destructive changes of tissue and new products, and so arrived at a novel method of treating some cutaneous diseases, like vascular nævus.

The method of research in respect to phosphorus has been of the simplest character. Phosphorus dissolves in some volatile fluids, notably in carbon disulphide, and in this solution can be kept ready for use. The solution was made by dissolving phosphorus in carbon disulphide up to the point of saturation. The fluid was kept in a well-stoppered bottle, was retained, ready for use, in a cold place, and was labelled "the standard phosphorus solution, saturated.” If, afterwards, it was considered necessary to lessen the quantity of phosphorus for experiment, more carbon disulphide was added, and the quantity of phosphorus was recalculated. It was, however, rarely necessary to dilute the standard solution. It was best in almost every case to reduce the quantity of solution used, and so save time and trouble in removing the solvent. In all instances the phosphorus was as finely distributed as possible through the substance to be oxidised, the process of admixture being performed in closed vessels, either by agitation, churning, or good trituration at a low temperature.

After complete admixture and distribution of the phosphorus through the substance in combination with its solvent, the solvent was removed, so as to leave the phosphorus free. Two methods were employed for this

object, but sometimes the two modes were combined. One of these plans was that of putting the compound under the receiving jar of a good air-pump and exhausting until all evidence of the escape of the bisulphide

vapour ceased to be supplied. There was an advantage in this from the fact that, as the oxygen of the air, contained originally in the bell-jar, was quickly pumped out, the mixture could be preserved from oxidation for any length of time, ready for service when it was required. In other instances I dispensed with the air-pump and used warmth for evaporation of the solvent. The carbon disulphide evaporates rapidly at a temperature of 105° Fahr., and when I wished to oxidise directly, by means of oxidised blood or of solution of oxygen, the liberation of the sulphide vapour proceeded side by side with the absorption of oxygen. Nature does what is analogous to this process in many of her designs, as in the act of respiration, where the carbonic acid is exhaled as the oxygen is absorbed. In certain other experiments I combined exhaustion with a high temperature, in order to secure a quick liberation of the solvent.

For the purpose of regulating warmth and subjecting the specimen experimented on to fixed degrees of temperature for longer or shorter times, I had constructed for me a chamber after the manner of the incubator devised by Messrs. Hearson. The chamber, which measures internally 8 inches by 10 by 10, is made of well-seasoned wood, covering an inner metal chamber filled with water. It is provided with double doors-one door (the outer) of wood, the other (the inner) of glass. The chamber is heated by a gas jet beneath it, and the heat is regulated by the expansion or contraction of a "capsule," which regulates the flame of gas with great nicety. A thermometer entering the chamber by a small opening at the top