NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 23o 



some solace to his yearning vacuous mind, and killed wearisome, 

 lingering time. The type of the savage, extant in modern civilized 

 life, still vacuous and indolent, finds tabac the time-killer ; while the 

 over-worked man discovers in the same agent a quietus, which his 

 exhaustion having once tasted, rarely forgets, but asks for again and 

 again. Thus on two sides of human nature we sec the source of 

 the demand for tobacco, and until we can equalize labor and remove 

 the call for an artificial necessity of an artificial life, tobacco will hold 

 its place with this credit to itself, that bad as it is, it prevents the in- 

 troduction of agents that would be infinitely worse. 



CURIOUS PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF NITRITE OF AMYLE. 



A paper on this subject was read at the British Association, 1864, 

 by Dr. 13. W. Richardson, the well-known English physiologist. lie 

 first described the mode of manufacture and the chemical properties 

 of the nitrite, and then passed on to the physiological action. The 

 first remarkable fact was that the nitrite when inhaled produced an 

 immediate action on the heart, increasing the action of the organ 

 more powerfully than any other known agent. As the action of the 

 heart rises, the surface of the skin becomes red, and the face assumes 

 a bright crimson color. A little of the nitrite was here placed on a 

 piece of bibulous paper, and passed round to show the effect on the 

 face; and the effect was most remarkable, causing the faces of the 

 persons who smelt the vapor to become instantaneously flushed. 

 Carried to an excessive degree, the nitrite excites the breathing, and 

 produces a breathlessness like that caused by sharp running or row- 

 ing. On animals, when the agent is given in large quantities, death 

 is produced. The author, at first thought, that the nitrite, like chlo- 

 roform, would cause anaesthesia ; but experiments had shown that this 

 view was not borne out. Animals would, it is true, lose conscious- 

 ness ; but when such a stage was reached, great dangers resulted, 

 owing to the slowness by which the poison was removed from the 

 body after its absorption. On the blood the nitrite produces dark- 

 ness of color, but it does not materially interfere with coagulation in 

 the body. In the lungs it excites congestion, and in the brain slight 

 congestion. It causes no severe spasm and no sickness. After enter- 

 ing into certain other details, Dr. Richardson proceeded to say that 

 the most remarkable effect produced by the nitrite was that in the 

 lower animals frogs, for instance it led to suspended animation, 

 which could be maintained for so long as nine days with perfect after- 

 recovery. This fact was of curious historical interest. The ancients, 

 especially Theophrastus (Paracelsus), had stated that there was a 

 poison which, when taken one day would not take effect until sofine 

 future day. This statement, long considered as a myth, had within 

 the present year been shown to be true by Dr. Letheby, who had dis- 

 covered a poison Avhich really produced this phenomenon. In like 

 manner the ancients had an idea that there were medicines which 

 would for a time suspend life. 



The proceeding of Friar Laurence in giving the distilled licmor to 



Juliet, was based on this old fiction, or shall we not say fact ? The 



next point discussed by Dr. Richardson had reference to the mode of 



action of this poison. Were the effects produced through the blood, 



21* 



