VOL.4, No. 12
PROTECTION AGAINST CORROSION
1487
the effects of such factors as anode polarization and hydrogen overvoltage, must be better understood before it will be possible to properly select, specify, and test protective metal coatings to resist any given conditions of service. The present d e m a n d for conservation of metals and for prevention or reduction of the large waste caused by corrosion, justifies f a r more extensive and fundamental studies of protective coatings than have been thus f a r conducted. Here is another opportunity for the colleges to coo p e r a t e with industry.
Chinese Drug Found Not So Potent As Adrenalin. The Chinese drug, ephedrine, that seemed for a time to rival the effects of adrenalin, the extract of the suprarenal glands famed for its so-called power to bring the dead t o life, is not so potent as was a t first believed, according t o a report just made to the American Pharmaceutical Association. Ephedrine was isolated from a Chinese plant in 1887 but first received serious consideration in recent medicine through the mearches of Dr. K. K. Chen at the Univerrity of R'isconsin. There seems 10 b~ little doubt that the dnrg possesses consider&,lc merit in raismg blood pressure but recent inveitigations undertaken by Dr. L. W. D& & Company ~aboratories,indicate that there is little eviRowe, of the dence that it will supplant adrenalin as the first clinical reports led many physicians to believe. The reasons for the high hopes of the earlier investigators lay in the facts that ephedrine could be given hy mouth instead of by injection and had a more prolonged action an the heart than adrenalin. Dr. Rowe's work has shown that the new drug has a more lasting action when given hypodermically in large doses but that its value when given by mouth has been somewhat exaggerated. In general, he believes that its qualitative action is similar to that of adrenalin in several respects but that it is much less powerful.-ScienceService hessing Kills Germs, German Scientist Finds. Science has discovered that the pressing of clothes has a higher function than that of merely keeping a knife edge crease in trousers. Prof. M. Hahn, director of the Berlin Hygienic Institute, has recently performed experiments with mechanical ironing machines whereby overcoats, trousers and blankets werr completely sterilized of disease-producing bacteria. Through the entrance of steam into the ironing plates, a temperature of from 212 to 223 degrees Fahrenheit can he obtained in a few seconds, the scientist and his assistants report. This can he raised to 252 degrees in a comparatively short time. The time period is so measured that every fabric, according to its thickness, is exposed to the steaming from twenty-five to thirty seconds. Thick overcoat materials, which had been smeared with many k i d s of dangerous bacilli, and camel's hair blankets were found to he entirely freed, by the ironing process, of pus-forming bacteria and germs closely related to the typhoid bacillus. Tuberculosis bacilli placed in trousers' pockets were killed in thirty seconds by the application of steam. Spore-forming bacteria required longer treatment. At least eight minutes of ironing w a s necessary to destroy these resistant types, it was found. While disinfection apparatus is still advisable for rendering a large quantity of .. materials free from germs. the use of ironing machines is especially valuable for smalland moderate-sized hospitals,sanatoriums, hotels. and sleepinz - cars, Prof. Hahn pointed out, because the apparatus is inexpensive and easy to operate.-Science Seroicc
