Adventure, December 1914 — page 55: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Stolen War Secret Craig. “Fundamentally it depends for its action on the physical principle of osmosis. You know that if substances of a certain kind are placed in solution next to each other and separated only by a thin porous membrane, there will take place and inter- change of the molecules or ions of the one substance with those of the other until the two liquids are completely mixed. It is an important property—without it life such as we know it would be impossible. These tubes, which perhaps you have thought were made of glass, are really made of a porous substance known as celloidin.” “Then you mean to say that the poison in her blood,” I exclaimed, “‘is passing slow- ly through those celloidin walls into that salt solution Which surrounds the tubes?” “Precisely,” he returned. ‘Any sub- stance, any poison that is dialyzable is dif- fused into the surrounding salt solution and the blood is passed back into the body, with no air in it, no infection, no further altera- tion. And as it is done while the person is still living, we call it, as I told you, vividif- fusion—a sort of living osmosis, after the manner that it goes on normally in the body itself.” Dr. Leslie himself, although he had heard of it, did not seem to be entirely clear on the matter. ‘What have you done to prevent clot- ting?” he asked. “That has been provided against. Clot- ting is prevented by the injection of a harm- less substance known as _ hirudin—some- thing derived from leeches.” ‘“Yes,” put in Sinclair who had been re- volving the thing in his mind, “but won’t that dialyze out other substances besides those you want to remove?”’ “I prevent the loss of anything in the blood which I want retained,” explained Kennedy, “‘by placing in the salt solution first, around the outside of the tubes, an amount of that substance equal to that held in solution by the blood. In that way, you see, we keep the blood and salt solution in balance, as it were, and nothing happens in regard to such substances.”’ ‘“‘And of course,’”’ cut in Leslie, ‘‘all sub- stances in the blood are not capable of dif- fusion, you know.” “Oh, of course,” agreed Kennedy. ‘The colloidal substances, for instance, would not pass out by osmosis anyhow. It is only the crystallizable elements which are capable of o3 diffusion. And it is precisely those elements that we want to reach. Yet by these deli- cate adjustments doctors can remove and discover any desired substance in the blood that is capable of elimination at all, in such a way.” “T see,’ agreed Sinclair. “It does in a way just the work that the kidneys do in elimination.” Kennedy nodded. “In fact this little apparatus, with its one hundred and ninety-two tubes,”’ he add- ed, “‘has been found in practise to compare favorably with the kidneys themselves in removing even a deadly dose of poison. That was why I thought of it instantly in this case.”’ ; Sinclair turned to Mrs. Hawley. “‘T hope she lives,”’ she breathed fervently. “Whatever her faults, I always rather liked the Sefiora.”’ “Yes,” put in Sinclair, “there have been tragedies enough in this unfortunate affair.” Burke shook his head doubtfully. “They are a violent people,”’ he remarked. “They don’t seem to value human life any more than if they were so many head of cattle.” As for me, I was unable to take my mind off the process that was going on before us. Kennedy was actually cleaning the blood of the gay little dancer and then putting it back again—getting rid of an elusive, sub- tle, fatal poison. I recalled his previous work in tracing out the poison and how it had been interrupted and wondered whether now we should be any closer in fixing it defi- nitely upon some one. Craig and Leslie were paying no atten- tion to the remarks of the rest. “How long would you keep this up?” Les- lie asked. Kennedy glanced at his watch. “The fact is,” he replied, “‘this process can be kept up for several hours without in- jury, if we are as careful as we have been so far. But I don’t think that will be nec- essary in this case after we have relieved the unusual strain that has been put on the vital organs.” ‘Stopping the process, I suppose, is as ticklish as starting it,’’ Sinclair remarked. “Yes,” replied Kennedy. “I’m glad you spoke of that. If anything should call me away suddenly, I think I can trust Dr. Les- lie with that just as well, perhaps better, than myself. You see, Doctor, finally, at ) MICLOOOLK (C©@