ON THE ACTION OF THE METHYL AND ALLIED SERIES. 165 



be applied externally, a useful agent. If it be true that sulphur compounds 

 are of service in the treatment of so-called zymotic diseases, this alcohol 

 would be a ready remedy of the sulphur class. 



New Eeseaech on the Exhtls. 



Prom studying the action of sulphur alcohol, I thought it well to pass to 



the ether of the sulphur series, p'^ -rr^ \ S, sulphide of ethyl. This ether, 



which is the analogue of the common rectified ether of the oxygen series, is 

 made by bringing sulphide of potassium into contact with chloride of ethyl. 

 It is a whitish fluid of offensive odour. It boils at 19-1:° P., and its vapour- 

 density is 45. It is slightly soluble in water and in blood. Although 

 disagreeable to breathe, it can be administered by inhalation like common 

 ether, and it produces, in like manner, sleep ; the action of it is slow in com- 

 parison with that of common ether, but the recovery from its effects is 

 quick, much quicker than from mercaptan. A very minute dose is sufficient 

 to narcotize ; a quarter of a grain, diffused in fifty cubic inches of air at 60°, 

 will narcotize frogs ; and when these animals are thus rendered insensible 

 they may be left in the narcotic vapour, with all evidences of life lost, for 

 periods of twenty-five minutes to half an hour without risk. Placed in the 

 open au', the animals begin to move again in one or two minutes, the muscles 

 of the Hmbs regaining their irritability sooner than the heart and the muscles 

 of respiration. 



On rabbits, guineapigs, and pigeons sulphide of ethyl acts directly as a 

 narcotic and anaesthetic. In pigeons it reduces the animal temperature four 

 degrees at the fourth stage of narcotism, and the muscular prostration is 

 intense; at the same time the danger of death, if due care be taken, is 

 slight. 



If four-fifths of a grain of the sulphide of ethyl be ejected subcutaneously 

 into the rabbit, the odour of the substance is detectable within a few seconds 

 in the expired breath, but no general effect is produced. Narcotism can 

 nevertheless be caused by the subcutaneous method. 



A number of experiments were carried out in order to determine whether 

 the sidphide of ethyl could be successfully employed to counteract the action 

 of strychnia, but the results were not of a character to lead to the idea that 

 the sidphide is an antidote for strychnia. 



The vapour of sulphide of ethyl inhaled from a solution of one part in 

 twenty of alcohol is less diagreeable than might be assumed. It causes, if 

 the inhalation be cautiously carried out, but little irritation, and the influence 

 of it as a narcotic is very much like that of sulphuric ether. It induces 

 much less muscular exhaustion than mercaptan, and it gives to the breath an 

 odour which lasts some hom-s after the inhalation has ceased. 



Bromide of Ethyl. 



Bromide of ethyl, or hydrobromic ether, C^ K. B^, was introduced as an 

 anaesthetic by the late Mr. Nunneley of Leeds in 1849. The ether is made by 

 distilling four parts of powdered potassium bromide with five parts of a 

 mixture containing an alcoholic solution of strong sulphuric acid, one part of 

 the acid in 96 of alcohol. The ether is a rather pleasant fluid to inhale. It 

 boils at 104° P. ; it has a specific gravity of 1-400 ; its vapour-density is 54. 



Mr. Nunneley up to the time of his death held this fluid to be the best 

 and safest of anaesthetics ; and in an interview I had with him shortly before 



