Wanklyn on the Action of Carbonic Oxide on Sodium-alcohol, 391 



very elaborate investigations, holds that the chemical actions of 

 muscular respiration are transformed into electricity, and the elec- 

 trical into contractile force ; but there is just as good reason for 

 supposing that the increased chemical action may be required to 

 keep up the muscular current, which current is being continually 

 annihilated by the actions which bring about contraction. And 

 thus, after all, the increased respiration of muscles which are made 

 to contract, may refer, not to the contraction, but to the renewal of 

 the state of relaxation. At any rate, it is scarcely possible to refer 

 to this fact as an objection to the view which is set forth in this 

 paper. 



" Regarded in an electrical point of view then, there appears to be 

 good reason for concluding that the history of muscular action is in 

 harmony with the theory which I have endeavoured to set forth at 

 various times, and more recently in the second edition of a work 

 having for its title, ' Epilepsy and other Convulsive Affections, their 

 Pathology and Treatment : ' — a theory, according to which, in every 

 case, pathological as well as physiological, muscular contraction is 

 produced, not by the stimulation of any vital property of con- 

 tractihty belonging to muscle, but by the simple cessation of the 

 action of certain agents — electricity, nervous influence, and others, 

 which had previously kept the muscle in a state of relaxation or 

 expansion." 



"On the Action of Carbonic Oxide on Sodium-alcohol." By 

 J. A. Wanklyn, Esq. 



Dr. Geuther* found that sodium-alcohol ( *Naf j^'^' ^^^"^ 

 gently warmed in a stream of carbonic oxide, yielded not pro- 

 pionate of soda, but formiate of soda, with evolution of olefiant gas. 

 The reaction, accorchngly, might be represented thus : — 



Na. 



and would consist in the replacement of C^ H^ by C^ O,. 



On inspection of Dr. Geuther's paper it appeared that the above 

 reaction was not established with sufficient certainty. The presence 

 of C, H, as a gaseous product was not satisfactorily proved by direct 

 experiment, but inferred from the production of formiate of soda. 



Berthelot has shown that carbonic oxide is capable of uniting 

 with the hydrated alkalies, fo as to form alkaline formiates. Also, 

 it is extremely difficult, and jjerhaps impossible, to obtain sodium- 

 alcohol free from hydrate of soda. It seemed, therefore, not un- 

 reasonable to suspect that Dr. Geuther's formiate came from hydrate 

 of soda accompanying the sodium-alcohol employed in his experi- 

 ments. The investigation about to be described shows that such was 

 really the case. 



Sodium-alcohol, freshly prepared from sodium and anhydrous 

 alcohol, was introduced into small glass bulbs, and hermetically 

 sealed therein. One of the bulbs, containing '406 gramme of 



* Annalen der Cliem. und Fharm. Jan. 1859. 



}o,+ao,=^^\^}o,4-c,H„ 



