304 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Rhignlene. — Prof. H J. Bigelow, in a communication in the 

 "Boston Modii-al and Surjj^ieal Journal," 18(iG, speaks of this 

 ajfont as follows : "The above name is proposed as convenient 

 to desifjnatc a petroleum na))htlia, boiliiijj at 70° Fahr., one of the 

 most volatile licjuids oljtaiiied hy the distillation of petroleum, and 

 which lias been applied to the production of cold b}'^ evaporation. 

 It is a hydro-earbon, wholly destitute of oxygen, and is the light- 

 est of all known liquids, having a speeifie gravity of U.625. It 

 has been shown that petroleum, vaporized and carefully con- 

 densed at dift'erent temperatures, offers a regular series of pro- 

 duets, whieh jiri'sent more material dilVerences than that of tlieir 

 degree of volatility; ami (hat the pi"esent product is probaltly a 

 combination of some of the known products of petroleum, with 

 those volatile and gaseous ones not yet fully examined, and to 

 whieh this fluid owes its great volatility. When it was learned 

 here that Mr. Iviehainlson of I^ondoii had produced a useful ana;s- 

 thesia, by freezing thi'ough the agency of ether vapor, reducing 

 the tem]ierature to G° below zero, Fahr., it occurred to me that a 

 very volatile produi-t of petroleum might be more sure to con- 

 geal the tissues, besides being far less expensive than ether. Mr. 

 ^Merrill having, at my recjuest, manufactured a liquid of which 

 the boiling point was 70° Fahr., it proved that the mercury was 

 easily depressed b\' this agent to 19° below zero, and that the 

 skin could ha with certainty frozen hard in five or ten seconds. 

 A lower temperature might doubtless be produced, were it not 

 for the ice which surrounds the bulb of the thermometer. This 

 result may be approximately effected by the common and familiar 

 ' spray-])roducer,' the concentric tulies of i\Ir. Richardson not 

 being absolutely necessary to congeal the tissues with the rhigo- 

 lene, as in his experiments with common ether. Freezing by 

 rhigolene is far more sure than by ether, as suggested by Mr. 

 Richardson, inasmuch as common ether, boiling only at about 96° 

 instead of 70°, often fails to produce an adequate degi'ce of cold. 

 The i-higolene is more convenient, and more easily controlled 

 than the freezing mixtures hitherto employed. Being quick in its 

 action, inexpensive, and comparatively odorless, it will supersede 

 general or local anaesthesia by ether or chloroform for small oper- 

 ations, and in private houses." Both the liquid and the vajjor of 

 rhigolene are highly inflammable. 



New AncBsthetics . — Two new substances, which bid fair to rival 

 even chloroform, have lately been introduced as anossthetics, by 

 an English physician. At the meeting of the British Medical 

 Association, Dr. Nunneley exhibited some bi'omide of ethyl, and 

 chloride of elayl (olefiant gas), both of which for some time jiast 

 he had used as anaesthetics. He stated that he had not lately 

 performed any serious ojjeration. either in private practice or at 

 the Leeds General Infirmary, without the patient being made in- 

 sensible by one or the other of these agents, each of which he 

 believed to possess important advantages over chloroform. They 

 were among the many analogous bodies experimented on by him, 

 and favorably mentioned in an essay on anaesthesia, published by 

 him in 1849. At that time the difliculty and cost of their prepa- 



