CARBON DIOXIDE AS A NARCOTIC AGENT. 



i. THE EFFECT OF CARBON DIOXIDE UPON THE FERTILIZED EGG 



OF Arbacia. 



CHARLOTTE HAYWOOD, 



(From the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, and from the 

 Department of Physiology, University of Pennsylvania.) 



The narcosis which may be produced by carbon dioxide seems 

 to have long been known. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural His- 

 tory, remarked that the marble from Memphis, when ground up 

 and used as a liniment with vinegar, had the virtue of rendering 

 insensible parts of the body to be cut or cauterized. In modern 

 times the value of carbon dioxide as an analgesic was recognized 

 soon after Black's discovery of "fixed air," and in 1788 we find 

 Percival recommending " fixed air " for the relief of painful ul- 

 cers. Later it was employed as a local anesthetic by Ingenhousz, 1 

 Beddoes, Simpson, Follin, Brown-Sequard, 2 Gelle, 2 and others. 

 In 1828, eighteen years before Morton's demonstration of ether 

 anesthesia, Hickman 3 appears to have suggested that general an- 

 esthesia be induced by inhalations of carbon dioxide, and it was 

 thus used later in the century by Ozanam and by Grehant, although 

 never extensively. Ozanam seems to have been impressed by the 

 promptness of recovery from the anesthesia produced in this way. 

 At one time it was thought by some that natural sleep and hiberna- 

 tion were the effects of the accumulation of carbon dioxide. This 

 view has been abandoned, but Kidd (1914) has recently with 

 more plausibility suggested a similar explanation for the dormancy 

 of seeds. The work of Cohn (1918) also indicates the possibility 

 that carbon dioxide may play an important part in keeping the 

 spermatozoa of Arbacia, inactive until their discharge into sea 

 water. 



1 Cited by Herpin (1864). 



2 Cited by Dastre (1890). 



3 Cited by Simpson (1856). 



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