Jan. 8, 1907 (Tuesday)

SCIENTISTS FIND A GREAT USE FOR .... COCAINE: Researchers at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research have come up with a discovery that some think can revolutionize anesthetics. The key is COCAINE. Until now, it has been thought that cocaine is useful for minor operations only -- such as toothaches and external cuts. According to today's Washington Post, "This is a BOON to surgeons as well as patients, because COCAINE is NOT at all DANGEROUS to use and has NO BAD EFFECTS." Furthermore, tests on animals indicate that cocaine is not a narcotic. Rather, it deadens pain. According to the Post, "The animals retained consciousness and followed every movement of the surgeon's knife with their eyes."

QUOTE OF THE DAY: U.S. District Attorney Robert T. Devlin is in Washington, and reporters are trying to get him to talk about the problems that have erupted in San Francisco regarding the exclusion of Japanese from the schools in that city. He tells reporters that he can safely talk about the earthquake, but the topics of Japanese immigration and exclusion of Japanese children are too risky for an interview. Someone suggested that the country will likely forget the issue if the Department of Justice delays making a move. Devlin replied, "Perhaps that would be a happy solution of the matter after all. Let it fall into INNOCUOUS DESEUTUDE [sic], as it were, to borrow an expression from Mr. Cleveland (left)."