James Watt, of Steam Engine Fame, Offered Inhaled Carbon Monoxide for Putative Therapeutic Action.

James Watt (1736-1819) is remembered as a steam engine innovator and industrial magnate. A polymath, he was also a hands-on contributor to the Medical Pneumatic Institution of Thomas Beddoes. Watt recruited Humphry Davy, who there discovered analgesic action of inhaled nitrous oxide in 1799.

Luck, an Inquisitive Mind, and Opportunities: Lessons Learned: A Blinded Study of Pulse Oximetry before It Became a Standard of Care.

A Single-blind Study of Pulse Oximetry in Children. By CJ Coté, EA Goldstein, MA Cote, DC Hoaglin, and JF Ryan. Anesthesiology 1988; 68:184-8.

The Reality of Inadequate Patient Care and the Need for a Global Action Framework in Organ Donation and Transplantation.

Background: Transplant therapy is considered the best and often the only available treatment for thousands of patients with organ failure that results from communicable and noncommunicable diseases. The number of annual organ transplants is insufficient for the worldwide need.

Methods: We elaborate the proceedings of the workshop entitled "The Role of Science in the Development of International Standards of Organ Donation and Transplantation," organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and cosponsored by the World Health Organization in June 2021.

Eponymous plot of Richard J. Kitz and Irwin B. Wilson in biochemistry.

Irwin B. Wilson and anesthesiologist Richard J. Kitz found the enzyme acetylcholinesterase to be inactivated in two steps by covalently acting molecules resembling acetylcholine in structure.

Thunberg's Barospirator, a Fully Encasing Predecessor of the Iron Lung.

Used as a ventilator for assisting victims of polio, the barospirator was described by Swedish physician-scientist Torsten Thunberg in 1924. An immediate predecessor of the iron lung of Philip Drinker, the barospirator fully encased the entire body. Cyclic air-pressure changes within the chamber achieved ventilation during equilibrations of intrapulmonary and ambient pressures.

The Perfect and Famous Anesthetic Known as Methyl in Boston in 1895.

Extravagant claims were made for proprietary dental anesthetics in Boston, MA, in the late 1800s. For instance, in 1883, Urial K. Mayo introduced an inhaled Vegetable Anaesthetic comprised of nitrous oxide that had been uselessly pretreated with botanical material.

John Snow and the First Second-Gas Effect.

In 1847, British anesthesia pioneer John Snow (1813-1858) observed that patients did not manifest cyanosis during induction with hypoxic mixtures of ether vapor in air. He hypothesized a molecular mechanism that would be understood over a century later as the second gas effect.

Buyer beware transplantation.

Poor long-term outcomes of commercial transplantation of transplant tourists reinforce the need to prevent this form of human trafficking. The development of an International Convention by the Council of Europe is highlighted and the implications for physicians of the criminalizing of organ trafficking are considered. The causes of poor outcomes from transplant tourism are considered, with the actions needed to provide both equity and sufficiency of access to transplantation as critical deterrent measures.

Chronic cardiac transplant arteriopathy in mice: relationship of alloantibody, C4d deposition and neointimal fibrosis.

Murine heterotopic cardiac allografts were used to reveal some of the fundamental interrelationships between donor-specific alloantibodies (DSA), chronic transplant arteriopathy (CTA) and capillary C4d deposition. B10.BR recipients of B10.

Ten-year research review of physical injuries.

Objective: To review the past 10 years of research relevant to psychiatry on injuries in children and adolescents.

Method: A literature search of databases for "wounds and injuries, excluding head injuries," was done with Medline and PsycINFO, yielding 589 and 299 citations, respectively. Further searching identified additional studies.

Mivacurium in infants and children.

Mivacurium is the only available short-acting nondepolarizing muscle relaxant in clinical use. It is a bis-quaternary benzylisoquinolinium ester hydrolysed by plasma-cholinesterase into inactive compounds. The ED and ED in children are about 50 μg·kg and 90 μg·kg respectively.

THE EFFECT OF CARBON DIOXIDE TENSION ON THE METABOLISM OF CEREBRAL CORTEX AND MEDULLA OBLONGATA.

Manometric measurements were made of oxygen uptake (Q(O(O2) )) and aerobic lactic acid output (Q(G)) by slices of cerebral cortex and medulla oblongata of the cat in the presence of mixtures of 1, 5, and 20 volumes per cent of carbon dioxide in oxygen. The concentrations of NaHCO(3) and NaCl in the medium were varied to maintain constant pH and sodium ion concentrations. The calcium ion concentration was 0.

THE EFFECT OF CARBON DIOXIDE TENSION ON TISSUE METABOLISM (RETINA).

The metabolism of rat retina was found to be sensitive to the concentration of the carbon dioxide-bicarbonate buffer system. Increasing the carbon dioxide from 1 per cent to 5 per cent at constant pH nearly doubled both respiration and glycolysis. Increasing the carbon dioxide at constant pH from 5 per cent to 20 per cent had no effect on glycolysis, but depressed the Q(O(O2) ) from 31 to 19.

THE EFFECT OF LOW OXYGEN TENSION ON TISSUE METABOLISM (RETINA).

Lactic acid production by rat retina in a medium containing phosphate was studied chemically. One half as much lactic acid was found as in a medium containing bicarbonate. In our experience the rate of respiration in a phosphate medium was sensitive to oxygen tension, for it was 38 per cent lower at 10 per cent and 51 per cent lower at 5 per cent oxygen than at 100 per cent oxygen.