June 29, 1876] 



NATURE 



199 



lutely perfect may, I found, be most imperfect on a man 

 or woman. I once thought I had established a perfect local 

 anaesthesia byapplyingtoanimalsnarcotic solutions locally, 

 in combination with a gentle continuous electric current. 

 It seemed to me that the current caused a rapid absorp- 

 tion of the narcotic, or so acted with it on the minute 

 blood-vessels as to produce contraction of them and 

 destroy local insensibility. Under this plan I performed 

 a number of operations on the lower animals without 

 exciting the slightest evidence of pain. When I came to 

 man the process broke down ; some insensibility was, 

 without doubt, produced, and seventeen operations were 

 performed by the local plan. But the more exalted sensi- 

 bility of the higher animal was not satisfied, and I learned 

 that what would do perfectly for a dog was quite ineffi- 

 cient for a human being. 



It is a curious episode in this research and worthy of 

 record, that one of my scientific critics, the late Dr. 

 Waller, a man of great genius, actually showed that he 

 could perform on dogs without any anaesthesia at all, the 

 same operations that I performed wiih this local anses- 

 theiia, and with similar apparent freedom from pain. 

 The result was that I continued all my after experiments 

 on local anaesthesia, first on my own body, and then on 

 other human subjects who required such ansesthesia for 

 operation. All my experiments with sprays to produce 

 insensibility by intense cold, on Dr. James Arnott's most 

 original design were first performed in this manner, and 

 the process was only applied to the inferior animals after it 

 had been made perfect for the surgical purposes for which 

 they required it. In this instance therefore man became 

 the subject of physiological experiment for the benefit of 

 the inferior animals as v.'ell as for his own. 



Primary Results of the Experimentation with 

 Ancpsthetics. 



The primary results of these experiments on different 

 modes and processes for inducing anaesthesia may be put 

 forward in a few sentences. They were all of them 

 results which could not have been reached by any other 

 line of research. 



1. The experimentation has enabled me, as a physician, 

 to keep on a level with the chemist in applying to the 

 services of man all those agents for the relief of pain 

 which the chemist produces. The chemical bodies of the 

 methyl, ethyl, bulyl, and amyl series with several others 

 which have promised to be of any service have been 

 tested, and their respective values carefully chronicled. 



2. For general anaesthesia I have been enabled, by the 

 research to add many new and useful anaesthetics. Bi- 

 chloride of methylene, which has been very largely used, 

 and which Mr. Spencer Wells invariably uses with signal 

 success for ovariotomy, came from this research. Me- 

 thylic ether, the safest anaesthetic I have yet known, was 

 proved by this research. Methylal, another very valuable 

 agent of the same kind, and which has to be practically 

 applied, is another good anaesthetic added by these in- 

 quiries ; while several agents tried for araesthesia which 

 have not answered, have been accidentally discovered to 

 possess other and valuable curative properties. The in- 

 troduction of the etherial solution of peroxide of hydrogen, 

 an exceedingly useful remedy, and the local use of butylic 

 alcohol for toothache, are two instances amongst many 

 more of this kind. 



3. The researches have enabled me to formulate the 

 physiological properties of the organic bodies that produce 

 anaesthesia, so that the value of the aniEsthetic compounds 

 maybe calculated from their phy sical characters and com- 

 position. I have been able to show that some elements — 

 such as chlorine — are objectionable parts of an anaesthetic 

 agent, others favourable ; that certain degrees of solubility 

 are objectionable, others favourable ; that certain vapour- 

 densities are objectionable, others favourable. I have 

 beeja able to point out a distinct theoretical standard of 



qualities which, being found, will yield a safe, manageable, 

 and agreeable anaesthesia. Lastly, I may add, from an 

 experience in the study of anEesthetics extended from the 

 time when they were first introduced until this hour, the 

 positive assurance that careful and steadily pursued expe- 

 rimental research must result in the discovery of all the 

 laws relating to anaesthesia, and to the further discovery 

 of an absolutely safe mode of producing it. For I have 

 learned that no man, no animal, ever yet has died because 

 it was rendered insensible to pain, and the deaths which 

 have occurred have invariably been due to some property 

 of the substance used that had no relation to the anaes- 

 thetic property — some independent bad quality which 

 we may fairly expect science to eliminate for the benefit 

 of man. 



4. While striving to apply the results of experimenta- 

 tion to the advantage of the human family, I have not 

 forgotten the inferior creation, and in nothing have I been 

 more successful than in their behalf. For operations on 

 animals I have been able to make the application of local 

 anaesthesia so perfect that there is no necessity whatever 

 that any lower animal should ever feel a pang from the 

 knife of the operator for any external cutting operation it 

 may have to undergo. The Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals has itself published the facts of an 

 operation, for removal of a large tumour from a horse 

 belonging to Sir Wm. Erie, that was performed by my 

 method of operating under ether spray while the animal 

 stood in the stable without halter or bridle, oblivious of 

 all pain. That fact, — one of a hundred similar, — I put for- 

 ward, not as in itself peculiar, but because of the record 

 from which it is taken. It could not have been recorded 

 even there but for the experimentation that gave it birth. 

 Beniamin W. Richardson 



NOTES 

 Her Majesty has been pleased to confer on Prof. Wyville 

 Thomson the honour of knighthood. 



It is stated that Sir C. Wyville Thomson and the members of 

 the scientific staff of the Challenger will be entertained at dirmer 

 in Edinburgh on July 7. The Lord Provost has consented to 

 take the chair. 



We notice from the official announcement in connection 

 v/ith the Loan Collection, that during the present week, 

 fourteen demonstrations of apparatus were given on Monday, 

 eleven on Tuesday, four on Wednesday and Thursday, while 

 seven will be given on Saturday. With regard to the com- 

 plaint in the Tunes as to the occasional non-attendance of the 

 lecturers, it should be remembered that these demonstrations 

 are given out of pure good-will by some of the most eminent 

 and busy of the scientific men of the day, who are not alwayrs 

 masters of their own time. The Department's arrangements 

 are entirely dependent on the convenience of these men, 

 and it should not therefore be blamed if its proposed pro- 

 grammes are not always rigidly carried out. The following 

 arrangements have been made for future free evening Lectures 

 on the Instruments in the Collection : — Saturday, July I, Prof. 

 Tyndall, P\R.S., on " Faraday's Apparatus, " in the Lecture 

 Theatre, South Kensington Museum ; Monday, July 3, the 

 Right Hon. Lyon Play fair, C.B., M.P., F.R.S., on "Air and 

 Airs," as illustrated by the Magdeburg Hemispheres and Black's 

 and Cavendish's Balances; Saturday, July 8, Dr. Gladstone, 

 F.R.S., "The Work of Davy and Faraday," as illustrated by 

 the Apparatus lent by the Royal Institution ; Monday, July 10, 

 Rev. R. Main, M.A., F.R.S., on "The Instrumental Foun- 

 dations of Practical Astronomy ; " Saturday, July 15, Dr. W. H. 

 Stone on "Modes of Eliciting and Reinforcing Sound ;" Mon- 

 day, July 17, Mr. C. V. Walker, F.R.S., on "Galvanic Time 

 Signals ; " Saturday, July 22, Mr. W. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S., 



