CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 205 



emanations from the chemical change going on in corpses luminous in 

 the dark. And thus I have, I trust, succeeded in tearing down one of 

 the densest vails of darkened ignorance and human error. 1 " 



ANAESTHETIC ACTION. 



M. ARAN has made experiments on the anaesthetic action of certain 

 agents used as an external application to the skin, and has found that 

 the best material for this purpose is chlorated chlorohydric ether. 

 The sesquichloride of carbon may also be used ; but, whilst the ether 

 operates effectually in a few minutes, at least two hours are required 

 to produce insensibility with the sesquichloride. To produce the desired 

 effect, from 15 to 30 drops of the pure chlorated chlorohydric ether 

 suffice. They are put upon the part in pain, or upon a piece of linen 

 cloth, which is to be immediately applied to this part, and the contact 

 is maintained by a bandage, and quickly the pain is relieved. A po- 

 matum of this ether may also be employed, consisting of four grammes 

 to twenty of suet ; or if of the sesquichloride of carbon, four of the agent 

 to thirty of suet : it may be used either with friction or without. 

 The insensibility is not simply cutaneous, for it gradually extends to 

 the parts beneath. The chlorated hydrochloric ether is obtained by the 

 action of chlorine on hydrochloric ether, by which compounds contain- 

 ing chlorine in increasing proportions are formed, isomerous with the 

 series of bicarburets of hydrogen, and identical with the same series in 

 the density of the vapor for corresponding compounds. It is a colorless 

 liquid, of an etheral, aromatic odor, analogous to chloroform, and a 

 sweetish and even peppery taste at times ; hardly soluble in water, but 

 wholly so in alcohol, sulphuric ether, and most of the fixed and volatile 

 oils. It is without action upon paper of tournsol ; it is not inflam- 

 mable ; has a variable density and a variable point of ebullition, oscil- 

 lating between 110 and 130 C., showing that the material is rather 

 a mixture of several ethers than a single simple substance. All the 

 chlorated chlorohydric ethers have the same anaesthetic properties, and 

 they cannot be separated completely from one another. LSInstitut.. 

 No. 886. 



BROMHYDRIC ETHER. 



M. ROBIN has called the attention of the French Academy to the use 

 of bromhydric ether, as a new and safe anaesthetic agent. In his 

 paper presented, he says : "Bromhydric ether may be ranked among 

 those agents which, even in the presence of humid oxygen, protect ani- 

 mal matters against slow combustion or decay, which exert an anti- 

 septic influence after death, and are, according to the dose administered 

 during life, sedative, antiphlogistic, or poisonous, producing asphyxia. 

 Those of the agents moderating slow combustion, which belong to this 

 class, are necessarily anaesthetic when they penetrate into the system 

 in sufficient doses. When they have not an acid taste they are anses- 

 thetic even by inspiration, if their point of ebullition, lower than 176 

 Fah., permits them to emit a considerable quantity of vapor at ordinary 

 temperatures. If their point of ebullition is too elevated, they are 



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