CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 1G5 



impossible at present wholly to expel. This oil is extremely hurt- 

 ful to the animal economy, so that the normal chloroform is the only 

 one proper for inhalation, and even this should be carefully rectified 

 by distillation, as it often contains foreign substances, which produce 

 the same effects as the methylic chloroform. 



COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF ANESTHETIC AGENTS. 



DR. C. T. JACKSON, at the meeting of the Boston Natural History 

 Society, April 4th, laid before the Society the results of his obser- 

 vation on the comparative effects of the inhalation of nitrous oxide, 

 the vapor of chloroform, and sulphuric ether. Nitrous oxide, he said, 

 administered in large doses, produces great excitement, which in- 

 creases with the quantity inhaled. The vapor of chloroform, on the 

 other hand, when inhaled rapidly, causes an immediate and entire 

 prostration. The same is true, in a less degree, of sulphuric ether. 

 They do not produce the intoxication which is caused by nitrous 

 oxide, and this agent also, when administered slowly, fails to produce 

 the usual effects. The vapor of chloroform, slowly inhaled, has an 

 injurious influence, disorganizing the blood, and stopping the circula- 

 tion in the capillaries. When suddenly introduced it retards, but 

 does not stop, the circulation. Patients to whom it is slowly admin- 

 istered recover slowly, and it is important in all cases that enough air 

 should be admitted with it. Persons inhaling nitrous oxide retain the 

 sensibility to touch, and respiratory action is quickened, increases, 

 and becomes deeper as the inhalation is prolonged. During the in- 

 halation of chloroform and ether, on the contrary, the respiratory 

 action diminishes. Under the influence of exhilarating-gas the sys- 

 tem is made very irritable. Dr. Jackson thought that the few cases 

 of excitement after the inhalation of ether might be attributed to 

 the previous state of mind of the patient, or to alcohol combined 

 with it. Conclusions drawn from experiments upon animals with 

 these agents, should be received with great caution, for their action 

 on animals differs according as these have or have not a cutaneous 



o 



perspiration. It kills those of the latter class. Dr. Jackson recom- 

 mended a mixture of chloroform with alcohol, in the proportion of an 

 eighth or a quarter of an ounce of the former to four ounces of the 

 latter. 



Dr. Warren remarked, that from his o\vn experience he preferred 

 ether to chloroform, as being much safer, and in his own practice 

 used chloric ether in preference to either of the other anaesthetic 

 agents. 



USE OF ANAESTHETIC AGENTS DURING SURGICAL OPERATIONS. 



STANISLAS JULIEN has found, in examining the Chinese books in the 

 National Library at Paris, the proof that the Chinese have been long 

 acquainted with the use of anaesthetic agents during surgical opera- 

 tions. The extract which he gives is from a book published about 

 the commencement of the sixteenth century, in fifty volumes quarto, 



