408 Appendin, 
the chloric ether you advised me to send, and they will immediately 
forward it to the gentleman you designated. ‘The price of chloric 
ether, you must be aware, will form no objection to its’ general use 
as amedicine.”* As regards the moral effect of using chloric ether 
as a medicine, there is no more danger than from other medicines of 
which alcohol is the vehicle. Some highly respectable physicians, 
it is true, are of the opinion that no such preparations should be used 
medicinally, but this appears not to be the general opinion of the 
faculty. 
At present, no other vehicle than alcohol is known by which chloric 
ether can be rendered manageable ; in alcoholic solution it may be 
given, either in small doses, or freely, if largely diluted with water. 
Remark.—As no accurate examination has been made in point of 
theory, we cannot say precisely what takes place during the distilla- 
tion of alcohol from chloride of lime. It is, however, worthy of no- 
tice that, as alcohol is believed to be composed of olefiant gas and 
water, (or at least of elements in such relative equivalents that they 
may admit of being so assorted) and as ether has a similar constitu- 
tion, although in a different ratio of the equivalents, and as chloric 
ether has been heretofore produced by the combination of chlorine 
and olefiant gas, it seems hardly to admit of a doubt, that in distill- 
ing alcohol from chloride of lime, the latter gives its chlorine to the 
olefiant gas of a part of the former, and thus produces chloric ether 
which passes over, in solution, in another portion of the alcohol, while 
the water of that portion of the alcohol which afforded the olefiant 
gas, or the water which may be supposed to be produced by a com- 
bination of the elements, is detained by the lime. 
Can any method be devised by which the alcohol can be detached 
from the chloric ether, and the latter obtained concentrated and i 
quantity ?—Eprror. 
Yale College, January 6, 1832. 
ee eee 
* Mr. Guthrie even names a price at which it may probably be afforded, and al- 
though it might be premature to mention it now, I may remark, that it js very Oy: 
Mr. G., or his agents in New York, will supply the chloric ether in any quantity, 
and send it in any direction. 
