Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 67 



" Mr. Hopkins placed a mass of rough ice, confined by a square 

 frame or bottomless box, upon a roughly chiselled flag stone, which 

 he then inclined at a small angle, and found that a slow but uni- 

 form motion was produced, when even it was placed at an incon- 

 siderable slope." This motion, which Mr. Hopkins attributed to 

 the dissolution of the ice in contact with the stone, would, I appre- 

 hend, have taken place if the mass had been of lead instead of ice ; 

 and it would have been but about half as fast, because the linear 

 expansion of lead is only about half that of ice. 



IX. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON THE ANjESTHETIC PRINCIPLE OF THE LYCOPERDON PROTEUS 

 AND CERTAIN OTHER FUNGI. BY THORNTON HERAPATH, ESQ. 



THE smoke of the pufF-ball, it is well known. has been long employed 

 in some parts of the country, by apiarists, for stupefying bees. 

 In a paper " On the Anaesthetic Properties of the Lycoperdon proteus. 

 or common PufF-ball," which was read before the Medical Society of 

 London in 1853, Mr. B. W. Richardson called particular attention 

 to this fact, and stated that the fumes of the burning fungus pro- 

 duced the most perfect anaesthesia, not only in insects, but also in 

 dogs, cats, rabbits, and probably in all the larger animals, and might 

 consequently be applied as a substitute for the vapour of chloroform 

 and aether in producing insensibility to pain in surgical practice. 

 With the assistance of Dr. Willis, he said, he had removed a large 

 tumour from the abdomen of a dog that had been placed under the 

 influence of the narcotic, without any sign of pain being exhibited by 

 the animal during the operation. From this gentleman's experi- 

 ments it appeared, that when a moderate quantity of the fumes was 

 inhaled slowly, the narcotism came on and passed off slowly, the 

 animal exhibiting all the symptoms of intoxication, with convulsions 

 and sometimes vomiting ; but that when they w-ere administered in 

 larger quantity, life was invariably destroyed. The consideration of 

 these and other facts induced Mr. Richardson to conclude, that the 

 peculiar eftects that were produced by the inhalation of the smoke 

 of the pufF-ball were caused by a volatile narcotic principle contained 

 in the fungus, which was liberated by the action of heat, but was 

 not absorbable by water, alcohol, or a strong alkaline solution. What 

 the exact nature of this principle was, however, he confessed himself 

 to be unal)le to determine. About eight or nme months ago I care- 

 fully repeated Mr. Richardson's exj)eriments, and after making several 

 futile attempts, at last, I believe, succeeded in isolating the narcotic 

 constituent of the smoke. 



The first step I considered it necessary to take in the investiga- 

 tion, was to determine in what part of the fungus the anaesthetic 

 ingredient was contained ; that is to say, whether in the sjjorules, 

 the cellular tissue, or the matters soluble in water. 1 accordingly 

 digested two or three ounces of the fungus, previously torn up into 



¥2 



