Kirby Method Research Articles

Oxalate complexes of Pa(V)

The solubility of Pa(V) hydroxide in solutions of oxalic acid was investigated. The dependence of the solubility of protactinium hydroxide on the oxalic acid concentration was related to the properties of the oxalate complexes of protactinium formed. Thus, for example, the low solubility of the hydroxide in 0.01–0.05 M solutions of oxalic acid is evidently explained by the formation of a hydroxyoxalate complex of protactinium with a 1∶1 composition. The composition of the readily soluble protactinium oxalate, isolated from solution by salting out with acetone, was studied. The Pa:C2O 4 −2 ratio in the complex was equal to 1∶2. It was shown that the precipitates obtained as a result of hydrolytic deposition of protactinium according to the Kirby method from solutions of hydrochloric and oxalic acids contain oxalate and chloride ions.

Studies on the nature of insect-transmission in plant viruses (VIII)

For the purpose of researching differences in nucleotides between healthy and dwarf diseased rice plants, ribonucleic acid (RNA) was prepared from rice plant leaves by a modified Kirby's method. Nucleotides were then obtained from the RNA by mild alkaline hydrolysis, and their quantitative conversions were observed.(1) For preparing RNA from rice plant leaves, the procedure described in the authors' preceeding paper was again modified. According to this schedule, the rice-RNA could be obtained more rapidly and more easily, with higher purity and homogenity, both from chemical and physicochemical points of view.(2) Purine-to-pyrimidine ratio (Pu/Py) of the RNA from dwarf rice plants was from 0.88 to 1.34, the ratio of adenylic acid plus uridylic acid to guanylic acid plus cytidylic acid (A+U/G+C) of the same RNA was from 0.68 to 1.00. The values of Pu/Py and A+U/G+C of the RNA from healthy rice plants were from 0.73 to 1.28, and from 0.60 to 1.02, respectively. Nucleotide compositions of the RNA, therefore, appeared to be rather similar between healthy and diseased rice plants. It is, however, noticeable that the ratio of guanylic acid to adenylic acid is larger, and guanylic acid content of RNA is larger in the diseased plants than in the healthy plants.

The Present Technique and Results of the use of Curare in Ocular Surgery

In this paper, I have summarized that which I have reported in former publica­ tions, and I have added the modifications suggested by our experience in the latest 500 cases of ocular surgery in which curare was used. Employing the technique of Kirby, I began to employ d-tubocurarine-chloride in ocular surgery in June, 1949; I used this akinesthetic at the beginning in a sporadic manner, applying it only in those cases in which I foresaw complications, either of a local or of a general kind, which seemed to indicate its use. Later on, I used it systemati­ cally with local anesthesia as the only akinesthetic in all intraocular surgical in­ terventions. In October, 1949, I published the results of the first 116 cases and explained, at the same time, the evolutionary process of my ideas and concept of the indications and technique of administration, taking Kirby's method as the starting-point, right up to the use of curare as the only akinesthetic, with anesthesia consisting of simple instillation of a cocaine-adrenalin solution. In 1950, after observing 516 applications of curare, I arrived at the following con­ clusions :