CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 249 



At the head of this retrograde school (which ignores the progress made by 

 physics and chemistry in the last eighty years, and to whom organized beings 

 are composed of a material which is not subject to the general laws of matter 

 Avhich composes the universe) appears a physician celebrated more than the 

 rest, Dr. Trousseau, who, raising the banner of vitalism, has declared that 

 chemical laws explain nothing when used in relation to man, and that 

 medicinal agents act by unknown and very different means from those which 

 chemists suppose. Space does not allow us to notice the reply made at the 

 same sitting by another physician, Poggiale, who is also somewhat of a 

 chemist. But we shall be asked, What is the precise meaning of vitalism ? 

 Vitalism is a force in the category of what has been called catalytic force: 

 this is a word which conceals our ignorance, and which is evidently an 

 obstacle to progress. This recalls that saying of Liebig : " If we allow force 

 to be created, investigations become useless, and it will be impossible to 

 arrive at the knowledge of truth." Vital force is, then, entirely for those 

 physicians who ignore the first notions of physics or chemistry, and think all 

 has been said when they have installed this senseless word in place of an 

 organic fact which ranks under the laws of mechanics, physics, or chemistry. 

 Vital force is insufficient to explain how it happens that a large number of 

 substances, such as sugar, tartaric and malic acids, sulphur, sulphurets, 

 salicine, etc., etc., undergo in the animal economy the same changes as when 

 subjected to chemical action. 



When we remember that slight compression of a muscle suffices to develop 

 heat, and that its contraction evolves electricity; that in order to establish 

 chemical action it suffices to place two heterogeneous bodies in contact, one 

 is surprised that medical men should seek to explain the phenomena of life 

 by "vital force;" as if the material of our bodies was exempted from the 

 laws that regulate matter; as if what they call vital laws could interfere with 

 the play of physical, mechanical, or chemical laws. Silliman's Journal. 



ANAESTHETIC ACTION OF CHLOROFORM. 



Dr. Piossek has presented to the Physiological Society of GreissAvald an 

 account of experiments with chloroform, made under the direction of Pro- 

 fessor Hunefeld, which seem to establish the following conclusions as to the 

 modus operandi of chloroform beyond a doubt: 



Chloroform produces anaesthesia by abstracting from the blood some of 

 the oxygen necessary to the continuance of the organic processes, thus 

 causing impaired nutrition of the central organs and nerves; hence the insen- 

 sibility of the sensatory, and the relaxation of the motory, nerves. The 

 oxygen of the blood probably combines with the carbon (liberated by the 

 decomposition of the chloroform) to form carbonic acid ; while the chlorine 

 and water of the chloroform probably form hydrochloric acid, etc. Into 

 what combination this hydrochloric acid may then enter with the ingredients 

 of the blood, is as yet unknown. The other anaesthetics, ether, amylene, 

 etc., act similarly, and their modus operandi may be compared to the narcotiz- 

 ing or asphyxiating action of carbonic acid or nitrous oxide. 



COMMERCIAL CHLORIC ETHER. 



It is a source of some inconvenience to apothecaries to know what is in- 

 tended by the physician when " chloric ether " is prescribed. On turning 



