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A new local anresthetic of the cocaine order has been discovered. It is called eucaine, and the advantage of the drug will enable the carrying out of those operations otherwise impossible with chloroform, owing to heart weakness of the patient. It will also enable the surgeon to take more time over his work. Although scarcely adaptable for amputations, it will he useful for treatment of the thyroid glands. The eucaine is injected by means of a hypodermic needle under the skin at the place where the incision is to be made. After a few moments the skin may be cut without the patient feeling anything. As different and independent parts are exposed, the drug is dropped at intervals of a few minutes. A highly successful operation with this anaesthetic was recently carried out in a London hospital, the operation lasting one and a half hours. The use of an automobile to form a portable station for astronomical work was brought out in a paper recently read before the Academie des Sciences. The work was carried on by Messrs. E. Tronchet and Henri Chretien, accompanied by the well-known chauffeur Maurice Farman. The report relates to the study of the Leonids in 1903 and the determination of their altitudes by the method of simultaneous observations. The systematic observation of the Leonids was carried on during that year at the Observatory of Chev- reuse, with a view of determining the relative position of these bodies with greater precision. To carry this out, the observations were made simultaneously at two different stations situated about 18 miles apart. This distance is large enough so as to make the errors of observation relatively small, and, on the other hand, it is sufficiently short to allow of a sure identification of the meteors which are observed by the double method. The first station was located at the Chevreuse Observatory, whose co-ordinates are: West longitude, 0 deg. 19m. 6s.; N. latitude, 48 deg. 42m. 33s.; altitude, 163 meters. The second station was placed in the Beauce region at Authon la Plaine (co-ordinates 0 deg. 23m. 1s.; 48 deg. 27m. 16s.; altitude, 145 meters). The rectangular distance between the stations measures 28.7 kilometers, and the azimuth of the first, relative to the second, is 10 degrees. As at that time of the year the weather was not generally favorable, in order to make the work easier to carry out the second station was formed by an automobile equipped with the necessary apparatus, which could be driven to the observation point in less than an hour in case of favorable weather. This method of arriving at the spot was all the more appreciated as the radiating point of the Leonids did not rise until very late and the observation had to be made during the latter half of the night. The observations were made on the nights of the 13-14tlit and 14-15th of November from 1 to 5 o'clock, and were registered on a special chart which was furnished by the Meteor Commission of the Astronomical Society. Chronometers (checked up before and after) gave the exact time. The number of meteors registered was 83 and they appeared to come from four principal radiants. The co-ordinates of these sources are as fol lows: A.R. n 137 deg 23 75 45 110 32 67 17 The meteors which were observed simultaneously at the two stations were identified by the coincidence of the readings. Out of twenty-two such coincidences, twelve presented sufficient guarantees of exactitude to allow of calculating the altitudes. The report gives the various data for the twelve meteors, together with the altitudes. The mean height of apparition is 103.6 kilometers; that of the disappearance is 75.8 kilometers. The mean length of trajectory is 35.2 kilometers. Mr. Lyman B. Brainerd, the treasurer of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, has been elected to the presidency of that corporation to succeed the late J. M. Allen. Mr. Brainerd has had a large experience in the management of corporations, and he will retain his office as treasurer.
