162 REPORT — 1870. 



more energetic than sodium. I prefer to immerse the potassium under the 

 alcohol in a small glass bell, from which there is a tube to allow of the escape 

 of the liberated hydrogen. When saturation is complete, a thick and almost 

 colourless fluid is formed, from which the ethylate may be obtained in solid 

 crystalline state. Exposed to water the potassium ethylate is transformed, 

 as is the sodium ethylate, into ethylic alcohol and bydi-ate of potassium. 



The composition of the potassium alcohol is - ^^ \ 0- 



The action of this compound on animal tissues, living and dead, is the 

 same as that of the sodium compound, but is more energetic. 



Practical Uses of Sodium and Potassium Alcohols. — -I do not as yet see the 

 means of applying readily these two active alcohols for internal administra- 

 tion, but I can predict for them a very extensive application for external 

 purposes. They are most potent caustics. In some cases they may be 

 employed to destroy, rapidly, such morbid growths as are not favoui'able for 

 excision by the knife. In many cases of cancer they will prove invaluable, 

 and will, I believe, exert a direct local curative influence. Injected subcuta- 

 neously into morbid growths, they would so quickly destroy them that the 

 action might have to be conducted while the body was under the influence of 

 an ansDsthetic. 



In being applied direct to the sensitive unbroken skin, I find that their 

 destructive action is less painful than would be expected. I have made with 

 both compounds a superficial eschar on my arm, with no more pain than a 

 slight tingling warmth. What is more, when pain is felt, it may be checked 

 quickly by dropping npon the part a little chloroform, which decomposes the 

 alcohol, converting it into a chloride salt, and an ether of which I have yet 

 to speak. 



Again, I find that these alcohols dissolve some of the vegetable alkaloids. 

 Thus opium may be dissolved in them, and a solution of opium in caustic 

 alcohol is made directly by mere addition of the narcotic to the caustic spirit. 

 Practical men will see the advantages of combinations of these alcohols with 

 narcotics. The practice opens the way to one of the greatest needs in medi- 

 cine, a sure, rapid, and painless caustic. 



The caustic alcoliols may be used in combination Avith local anaesthesia 

 from cold. A part rendered quite dead to pain, by freezing witli ether 

 spray, could be directly destroyed by the subcutaneous injection of caustic 

 alcohol, a practice very important in the treatment of poisoned wounds, 

 siich as the wound from the bite of a snnke or a rabid dog. It is by no 

 means improbable that some cystic tumours may be cured by the simple 

 subcutaneous injection of a little of these fluids, after destruction of sensi- 

 bility by cold. 



Potassium and sodium alcohol, added to the volatile hydride of amyl, 

 dissolve in the hj'dride and produce a caustic solution. When this solu- 

 tion is applied to the skin, the evaporation of the hydride takes place, 

 and a layer of the caustic substance is left behind. This application would 

 prove very useful to the surgeon in many cases of disease. 



The action of the cthylates on the blood is extremely rapid and marked. 

 The red corpuscles are brought into solution, and there forms (quickly in 

 some cases) an almost instant crystallization of blood ; the crj-stals are 

 acicular, and spread out in arborescent filaments. The arborescent appearance 

 is identical with the crystallization of the cthylates themselves in a thick fluid, 

 but the smaller radiant crystals are due, I believe, to the crj'stallization of 

 the crystaUoidal matter of the blood-cells. They are singularly like the 



