VOL.0, NO. 10
MARKETINGAMERICANCHEMICALS
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developing a new industry; R & H, specialized service to specialized industries. If we could evaluate all of the factors that have contributed to the remarkable growth of the American chemical industry within the past six or seven years, I think we would find that the dissemination of knowledge regarding new products and processes, foreign trade and market developments, production and distribution, underlies all of our industrial progress. And among these important factors is advertising which has a great influence on the marketing of American chemicals.
The Board of Editors of "Organic Syntheses" (an annual publication of satisfactory methods for the preparation of organic chemicals) has decided to collect, revise, and rearrange the preparations in the first nine volumes in such a way as to make them more suitable for general use in synthetic organic chemistry. All of these preparations are to be published in a single comprehensive volume to be designated as the "Collective Volume-Revision of Volumes I-IX." In this work of revision, suggestions in the way of corrections, difficulties in checking, new and improved methods, etc., would be greatly appreciated. Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa, U. S. A. Address: HBNRYGILMAN,
Ether Denounced as Dangerous. Ether has been denounced by the dean of thc University of Michigan medical school as "the most dangerous anesthetic in modern surgery." Dr. Hugh Cabot, widely known as a surgeon and author and dean of the mcdical school a t Ann Arbor since 1921, let it be known that in his opinion "if it were possible t o trace casualties to the use of ether in the operating room, it would have been found to have killed mare people than any of the other three anesthetics used: chloroform, nitrous oxide or ethylene." Dr. Cabot continued his challenge of the use of ether by stating that in the past, less than ten per cent of the deaths which could be traced t o the administration of that anesthetic were ever published. The mortality in ether deaths, except in a very few cases, does not come immediately after its administration, he said, as is seen in the cases of patients exhibiting a fatal contra-indication for chloroform. In a few days, however, complications seem t o develop, and death is said t o be due t o "cardiac failure, bronchial pneumonia, or some other pulmonary complication that satisfies the surgeon," he went on. Dr. Cabot declared that the explosions which have attended the use of ethylene gas have been due t o "careless methods manifested in its administration."-Science Service
