258 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the blood, namely, an abundance of oxygen in it. If the artificial 

 respiration be kept up for three or four hours, a dose, otherwise 

 fatal, will be recovered from, the greater part of the poison being 

 transformed into a harmless substance ; a very small portion only 

 is eliminated by the kidneys. These experiments may lead to a 

 rational treatment of tetanus, whether produced by poison or fol- 

 lowing wounds. The chief desideratum would be a method of 

 keeping up artificial respiration for a long time. 



Prussic Acid. Mr. Ralph read a paper before the Medical 

 Society of Victoria, "on the effects of prussic acid on the animal 

 economy." He administered it to various animals, rabbits, flies, 

 bees, maggots, etc., and in all cases found afterward concretions 

 of Prussian blue or a cyanide of iron in the tissues, having 1 failed 

 to detect any such colored masses before his experiments com- 

 menced. In two cases of persons to whom prussic acid was given 

 as a medicine, the films and concretions of Prussian blue were 

 noticed in the blood with the microscope. From his observations 

 he is satisfied that prussic acid causes a change in some of the 

 constituents of the blood, that it attacks the iron when in some 

 particular condition, and, with perhaps the aid of some alkaline 

 base, the Prussian blue is formed, which may vary very much, as 

 is well known, in its constitution. He also finds that at the same 

 time as the ferrocyanide is formed, amylaceous particles are set 

 free, and draws some valuable conclusions as to the formation of 

 corpora amylacea, and suggests that the iron in the blood may not 

 improbably have other functions beside that connected with 

 oxygen, namely, that of being a vehicle or medium for holding 

 carbon and hydrogen together, and for their more ready distribu- 

 tion to the tissues. Dr. Hassall some years since pointed out the 

 formation of indigo in the urine and tissues of the body ; Mr. 

 Ralph's experiments show that the blue particles are not indigo, 

 but Prussian blue or a cyanide of iron. Quarterly Journal of 

 Science, 1867. 



* 



NEW ANAESTHETIC. 



" We are glad to announce the introduction of a new anaesthetic, 

 which, if further experience confirms the results hitherto obtained, 

 promises to be of remarkable value. Dr. Protheroe Smith has 

 been making some observations on the administration by inhala- 

 tion of the tetrachloride of carbon (CC1 4 ), of which we wait for a 

 fuller account. In the mean time, from our own observation, we 

 may state, in favor of this agent, that it has a pleasant odor, some- 

 what resembling that of the quince. We understand that anaes- 

 thesia is rapidly produced by it (in some cases in the space of 

 half a minute) ; that the condition appears to be easily sustained 

 with or without entire loss of consciousness ; and that the effects 

 pass off very quickly. There is not usually, we learn, any excite- 

 ment or struggling before anesthesia supervenes, and its use is 

 not followed by the sickness which is sometimes so troublesome a 

 feature from the administration of chloroform. A point of great 

 interest in relation to the tetrachloride of carbon is the property 



