156 REPORT— 1870. 



steady progression, adding in due place what has been attempted in research 

 with other organic bodies. 



The matter I have to communicate in the present Report I shall place 

 under three heads, which shall indicate the lines of inquiry I have aimed to 

 carry out. I propose, first, to bring under review some of the work of tlie 

 past, with such improvements upon it as have been since elicited by experience 

 and experiment; secondly, to narrate the results of new researches with 

 certain substances which have not before been tried by the physiologist, in 

 respect to their action on the body ; and, thirdly, to submit some conclusions 

 deduced from experiments relative to the general physiological action of 

 certain of the more active agents that have come before me for study. 



PART L— REYIEW. 



Out of the list of compounds reported upon in previous years, I select for 

 review nitrite of amyl, bichloride of methylene, methylic ether, and 

 hydrate of chloral. 



This selection is made because all the substances named have been found 

 to have, in their application, a practical not less than a scientific value. 



Nitrate of Amyl. — In 1863 I first reported to the Association on this che- 

 mical substance, the nitrite of amyl, treating then purely on its physiolo- 

 gical properties, and venturing nothing in respect to its employment for the 

 relief or cure of disease. In the following year, however, I made a further 

 advance, and at the Meeting in Bath in 1864 I was able to state to the As- 

 sociation the true place of this nitrite as a physiological agent and as a remedy 

 for disease. Ishowed then that its great virtue lay in its power of removing 

 muscular spasm ; for I had detected that beneath the action which it promi- 

 nently calls forth, the excessive action of the heart and apparent excitement, 

 there is another and more permanent condition produced, viz. a temporary 

 paralysis of muscle and a suspension of all the outward manifestations of life 

 ■which, in Batrachians, could be sustained without actually destroying life. 

 These observations led me to point out the importance of employing the 

 nitiite in order to control spasms, and especially to meet the spasmodic disease 

 tetanus, commonly called locked jaw, over which I inferred it would have 

 a direct controlling power. 



In course of time this suggestion for the application of the nitrite for 

 the relief of acute spasm came into practice, Dr. Brunton, of Edinburgh, 

 leading the way by administering the remedy, with marked success, for the 

 reUcf of what is called atlgina pectoris. Further experience has fully 

 supported the introduction of the remedy, and in the past year there has 

 been signal advance. In December last Dr. Anstie had recourse to the 

 nitrite for the relief of angina, with the result that the sufi'crer passed (I use 

 the author's own words) " from agony into a state of perfect repose." Dr. 

 Earquhar has also reported that in an instance of terrible pain from spasm 

 of the bowels, where the nitrite was administered, the patient expressed that 

 he " was transformed from agony to heaven in a moment." Dr. Leischman, 

 Dr. Hadden, and Dr. H. Thompson have borne similar testimony to the value 

 of the agent. But the most striking example of the action of this potent 

 remedy has been recorded in the ' Lancet,' in April of the present )'oar, by 

 a most experienced and learned practitioner, Mr. Foster, of Huntington. 

 Mr. Foster had the opportunity of applying the nitrite in the disease 

 tetanus, for which I recommended it in 1864, to a man who suffered from 



