Aug. 17, 1876] 



NATURE 



341 



tion meant loss of vascular resistance, and that the sup- 

 posed stimulant was indeed a paralyser of the most 

 active kind. 



In turn this reading of the true physiological action of 

 the nitrite of amyl led me safely to its true therapeutical 

 value, and the result was that its exact place in therapeutics 

 was fixed correctly before ever it was used for the treat- 

 ment and cure of disease. At the meeting of the British 

 Association for the Advan:ement of Science held at Bath 

 in 1S64, I pointed out its therapeutical position. The 

 application of nitrite of amyl as a new remedy for the 

 use of the physician was clear : it was a remedy to 

 be applied in controlling muscular spasm. It was, I 

 said, selecting for my illustration the most terrible and 

 typical of all the spasmodic diseases, it was the remedy 

 even for tetanus or lockjaw, and this view I afterwards 

 demonstrated by the direct experiment of neutralising 

 strychnine tetanus in the frog by the application of the 

 nitrite, of suspending the tetanic symptoms by the agent 

 until the strychnine was eliminated, and of physiologically 

 curing a disease which had been physiologically produced 

 and which, but for the antidote, would have been irrevo- 

 cably fatal. 



So soon as the therapeutical position of nitrite of amyl 

 had been discovered by experiment the practical adapta- 

 tion of it was comparatively easy. I had only to learn 

 how it had best be administered ; how to administer it, 

 by inhalation, by the mouth, by subcutaneous injection ; 

 how to make it combine with other medicinal substances, 

 and how to select the most suitable substances with which 

 to join it in combination. The researches in these direc- 

 tions were all conducted on human animals, or rather on 

 one animal — the experimentator himself. The modes of 

 administration were also recorded for the guidance of 

 practitioners, and the remedy was in time fairly launched 

 on a true scientific basis, its action explained, its use 

 described, its effects predicated. 



I spent three years in research on the physiological 

 properties of nitrite of amyl in order to discover its place 

 as a means of cure of human maladies. If I had spent 

 thirty years instead of three the tim^e and labour had not 

 been badly repaid. The practical results of my work in 

 the benefit conferred on mankind in mitigation of suffer- 

 ing and in cure of diseases of an intractable nature have 

 been rapid in their course beyond expectation. Dr. 

 Lauder Brunton first tried the application of the nitrite of 

 amyl for the relief of one of the most acutely painful of 

 the spasmodic diseases, the disease known as angina 

 pectoris, and gained an immediate success. Dr. Anstie 

 came to me for the remedy in a case where a man was in 

 the pangs of death from acute spasmodic asthma, and 

 after five minutes of the inhalation of the vapour found 

 his patient breathing with the most perfect freedom, or, 

 as he expressed it to me, " the man became conscious and 

 natural in a few seconds so soon as the physiological 

 action of the remedy took effect ; it was like dragging a 

 drowning man out of the water." Dr. Farquharson ad- 

 ministered the vapour to a man in excruciating agony 

 from colic, and witnessed the same relief so soon as the 

 physiological effect was produced. 



A little later came the application of the nitrite of 

 amyl for the treatment of tetanus, the crucial trial of the 

 agent which I had originally proposed. Mr. Foster, 

 of Huntingdon, was the first surgeon to put it to the 

 test in this disease. A man, after an injury, was seized 

 with tetanus. In the spasmodic grasp of the malady 

 he " was rolled up hke a ball." Under the inhalation 

 of the vapour of the nitrite of amyl his muscles relaxed, 

 and whenever the spasm threatened to recur the adminis- 

 tration of the vapour of the paralysing agent relaxed the 

 contraction. So for nine days, during which an ounce of 

 the remedy was given by inhalation, the death from 

 the spasm was prevented ; by that holding on, the cause 

 of the spasm became inactive, as I had anticipated, and 

 the recovery was secured. 



Two other equally successful instances of this same 

 kind have been recorded, and recently Dr. Fowler, of 

 New York, has pubhshed a fourth experience identical 

 in character, but with a remarkable additional fact 

 appended. The sufferer who was, as we should once 

 have said, fatally stricken with tetanus, made a primary 

 recovery under the administration of the nitrite of amyl. 

 Unfortunately the supply of the remedy ran out, and 

 before a new supply could be obtained the tetanic 

 spasms returned and continued with increasing vio- 

 lence. At last the remedy was reobtained, and after a 

 lapse of sixty hours was re-administered. The relaxation 

 of the tetanus was again secured, the return of the spasm 

 was controlled over a period of several days, and once ' 

 more the art of the physiologist was rewarded in the re- 

 covery of that stricken patient from one of the most 

 terribly excruciating forms of painful death. 



I have put no word of my own experience on the use of 

 nitrite of amy], long and successful though it has been, 

 on the present record. I have supplied but a few typical 

 facts from the experiences of other observers, and if I 

 could put in all it would be but the record of the uses of a 

 remedy which is as yet but beginning to be applied for 

 the cure of painful diseases not only of men, but of lower 

 animals also, especially of dogs and horses. The point I 

 want to keep in mind is that the results already obtained 

 are the fruits of experimental inquiry. I stood at the 

 gate of the place where this new remedy came from. I took 

 it first as a physician, from the hand of the chemist. I de- 

 termined its place in medicine. Then other men took it 

 from me, and confirmed my estimate. Thus the history of 

 this remedy is made clear from its beginning, and it is most 

 just to say that if I or some one else, given to like method 

 of research by experiment, had not tested the agent in 

 the same way, the results that have already been obtained 

 from it had been lost. Whether the results are worthy 

 the method — whether, for instance, the experiment of pro- 

 ducing and curing tetanus in a frog is warrantable in 

 order to discover a plan by which tetanus induced in man 

 by natural disease can be cured by art — these are the 

 serious kind of questions on which opinion is now divided. 

 It is my duty to show the practical arguments in favour 

 of the experimentation. 



Benjamin W. Richardson 



{To be continued.) 



NOTES 

 On Friday last, in the House of Commons, Mr. Reed 

 asked whether the memorial, already printed in our columns, 

 signed by many of the most eminent men of science in 

 the kingdom in favour of the establishment of a permanent 

 Museum of Science had been presented to the Lord President 

 of the Coimcil ; if so, whether he had any objection to laying 

 it upon the table of the House ; and whether the Government 

 propose to take any action in the matter. — Lord Sandon in 

 reply stated that he was glad the hon. gentleman had called at- 

 tention to the important memorial to the Lord President of the 

 Council, which had been signed by, he might almost say, all 

 the most eminent men of science in the kingdom, in favour of 

 the establishment of a permanent Museum of Science at South 

 Kensington. He added that it was one of the many gratifying 

 results of the remarkable exhibition of scientific apparatus which 

 we have had the satisfaction of getting together at South Ken- 

 sington, with the assistance of the leading men of science both 

 of this country and of almost every civilised State. Lord Sandon 

 promised to at once lay the paper on the table of the House. 

 He was not in a position to say what action will be taken 

 respecting it, but assured the hon. gentleman that it was receiving 

 the best consideration of Her Majesty's Government. 



