Temporary Conversion Research Articles

"Bergson Resartus" and T. S. Eliot's Manuscript

Bergson remains something of an enigma in intellectual history. After the publication ofhis Creative Evolution in 1907, he enjoyed an immense popularity in both America and Europe, poised at the center of controversy with profound implications for philosophy, theology, and science. The factions opposed around Bergson's vision might loosely be labelled Classical and Romantic. Enemies of mechanistic, utilitarian, and rationalistic accounts of the world hailed Bergson as liberator; and many Catholics, anxious to modernize their faith, were also counted among his friends. These disciples fell broadly into the neo-Romantic camp. Bergson's opponents included both defenders of reason such as Bertrand Russell and the Classical Thomist thinkers Julien Benda and Jacques Maritain, who both exerted profound influence on T. S. Eliot's thought. Eliot also admired T. E. Hulme, whose Classicism ironically adapted some ofBergson's ideas. The Roman Catholic Church itselfdidnottake kindly to the vogue of elan vital, and in 1914 the Vaticanplaced Bergson's major works on its index of prohibited books. Itwas surely no accidentthatT. S. Eliot, whose ownwork embodies subtle conflict between Classical and Romantic values, felt obliged to confront the work of so major and controversial thinker. Eliot eventually concurred with Maritain's Thomistic assessment of Bergson, but critics have long recognized thatBergson left apowerful impression on Eliot's poetic mentality. Recentwork on Eliot continues to highlight this debt. 1 Such studies have been inspired partly by Eliot's acknowledgment of a temporary conversion to Bergsonism.2 Further evidence includes letter from Eliot's mother to Bertrand Russell in 1916 stating that she had read Bergson's Creative Evolution and attended

Series self-excited HVDC generation

A new concept in HVDC generation simplifies the design of unit-connected generator-convertor plant. The generator exciter winding is connected in series with the output of the HVDC convertor and takes the place of the conventional smoothing reactor. As the existing steady-state AC-DC formulation is not directly applicable to the series connection a new algorithm is developed to simulate its performance. The results of the simulation show that series excitation is less efficient at low power levels but extends the temporary power conversion capability of the unit connection and permits fast fault clearances.

T. S. Eliot's Rhapsody of Matter and Memory

TN a sermon preached at Magdalen College in 1948, T. S. Eliot confessed that his only real conversion, by deliberate influence of any individual, was a temporary conversion to Bergsonism.''1 This conversion had occurred years before in I9 IO-I i when Eliot was attending Henri Bergson's lectures at College de France. Yet within two or three years he had recanted and thereafter seldom spoke well of Bergsonism. The essays collected in The Sacred Wood (1920) make his opinions clear: the follies and stupidities of French, no matter how base, express themselves in form of ideas-Bergsonism itself is an intellectual construction.2 It was a folly and stupidity because it mixed genres: Every work of imagination must have a philosophy; and every philosophy must be a work of art-how often have we heard that M. is an artist! It is a boast of his disciples .... Certain works of philosophy can be called works of art . . . [are] clear and beautifully formed thought. But this is not what admirers of . . . mean. They mean precisely what is not clear, but what is an emotional stimulus.3 Four years later, he echoed these remarks: Bergson makes use of science-biology and psychology-and this use sometimes conceals incoherence of a multiplicity of points of view, not all philosophic.4 Given Eliot's revision of his attitudes toward following his return from France, critics like Grover Smith, Gertrude

A novel method for the calibration of Kováts retention indices using n-alkanes with a thermionic nitrogen-phosphorus specific detector.

This paper describes a novel method for the detection of compounds that do not contain nitrogen or phosphorus by a thermionic nitrogen-phosphorus specific detector (NPD), which normally detects only nitrogen- or phosphorus-containing compounds. This method allows for the calibration of gas chromatographic columns with NPD detectors using n-alkanes instead of nitrogen-containing drug mixtures. This results in a more rapid and accurate calibration for the calculation of relative retention indices (RRI), such as Kováts indices, than was previously possible when employing an NPD detector. The proposed method describes the temporary conversion of the NPD detector into a detector with properties much like a flame ionization detector. After a deliberate increase in the hydrogen gas flow rate to the thermionic bead from 4 ml/min to 8 ml/min, the n-alkanes (containing no nitrogen) can be detected and used as RRI calibrators. Once the column has been calibrated, the hydrogen gas flow rate is lowered to the normal rate of 4 ml/min. The detector then behaves as a normal NPD, no longer detecting the n-alkanes.

Electroconvulsive Therapy in Patients With Pacemakers

A patient with an R-wave inhibited permanent pacemaker required electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Possible interference by this therapy with pacer functioning through external interference or internal interference by inhibitory myopotentials was eliminated by temporary conversion to fixed rate pacing before ECT.

Roosevelt's 1933 Monetary Experiment

THE period between the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt and the devaluation of the dollar in January 1934 is in many ways one of the most complex and baffling in twentieth-century United States monetary history. A struggle for monetary control erupted involving the President, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve System. Roosevelt was successful in curbing the threat of direct congressional intervention only after he had agreed to accept broad, new, discretionary monetary powers. The Thomas Amendment to the Farm Relief Act conferred upon the President the power to devalue the dollar, to issue paper money, and to exercise significant influence on the conduct of open market operations. Intervention or the threat of presidential intervention in monetary decision-making understandably made the behavior of Federal Reserve officials less intractable than it was inclined to be. The result of this conflict was that the President assumed direct responsibility for the conduct of monetary policy-precisely what the founders of the system had fought so hard to avoid.' Roosevelt declared in unequivocal terms that the target of monetary policy was to raise prices. To attain that objective, he adopted a policy of exchange rate depreciation, at first by unhitching the dollar from its gold peg, later by a more active policy of purchasing gold in both domestic and foreign markets. What has continued to baffle monetary historians is Roosevelt's temporary conversion to the view of George F. Warren that the price level would rise simply by increasing the purchase price of gold. The gold purchase program had been rejected as fallacious by most of his monetary advisers, by officials in the budget bureau, the treasury, the agriculture department, and the Federal Reserve, as well as by the vast majority of monetary economists.

CONVERSION OF ACETYL STROPHANTHIDIN-INDUCED VENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA TO SINUS RHYTHM BY ISOPROPYL METHOXAMINE.

SummaryAcetyl strophanthidin was infused intravenously into 9 dogs at a constant rate of 6 μg/kg/min until death occurred. After the establishment of ventricular tachycardia, isopropyl methoxamine was administered intravenously at dose levels ranging from 2-12 mg/kg. This resulted in temporary conversion to sinus rhythm in all cases.

Derivate von L‐Methionin‐sulfoxyd und ihre Verwendung für Peptidsynthesen

The unwanted side reactions often encountered in the synthesis of methionine containing peptides can be eliminated by a temporary conversion of the thioether function of methionine into the sulfoxide at any stage of a peptide synthesis. The sulfoxide oxygen is introduced without the formation of a sulfone when a small excess of hydrogen peroxide is used, and its elimination is easily achieved by reduction with thioglycolic acid. In contrast to the carbobenzoxy derivatives of methionine the removal of the carbobenzoxy group from the corresponding sulfoxides proceeds smoothly by mild treatment with concentrated hydrochloric acid. The synthesis of the peptide derivative H·pro‐Tyr‐Lys(Tos)‐Met·OH, using this method, is described.

Prolonged Paroxysmal Auricular Tachycardia

THERE have been several reports in the literature of cases of prolonged paroxysmal auricular tachycardia. The case reported below is presented because it is somewhat rare and it is the first case in which veratrum viride has successfully though temporarily stopped an episode of tachycardia.Peterman1 reported a quite similar case in a six-year-old child who developed an auricular rate of 160 in November, 1943, and at the time of the study (January, 1946) the tachycardia had persisted. Digitalis was given until toxic effects were produced without stopping the tachycardia; mecholyl produced only temporary conversion to normal rhythm, and papaverine, . . .