272 report — 1865. 



Second Report on the Physiological Action of certain of the Amy I Com- 

 pounds. By Benjamin W. Richardson, M.A.,M.D., F.R.C.P. 



At the last Meeting of the Association, I read before the Physiological Section 

 a " Report on the Physiological Action of Nitrite of Amyl." On that occa- 

 sion the members were good enough to express a wish that I should continue 

 the inquiry. The present Report is the result. 



In accordance with the desire of the Committee, I have in this Report 

 carried out a more general enquiry. Instead of confining myself to one spe- 

 cial body in the amyl series, I have taken several of them, viz. amylene or 

 valerene as one of the simplest of the type, amylic alcohol, acetate of amyl, 

 and iodide of amyl. 



I hope, from the researches I have made, to leave in the hands of the 

 Association a fair history of the physiological value of all these compounds. 



Before proceeding further, permit me to invite the attention of the Section 

 to a very brief summary of the facts brought forward at our last Meeting, 

 in 1864, respecting the nitrite of amyl. I showed then that nitrite of amyl 

 was — 



1. The most powerful excitant of vascular action known. 



2. That in animals whose bodies admit of its spontaneous evaporation, 

 the nitrite suspends animation ; and that in animals of higher organization 

 it induces a condition resembling cataleptic insensibility. 



3. That it is not an anaesthetic. 



4. That the effects produced by it are developed on the motive powers of 

 the organism, which it first vehemently excites, and then paralyses. 



5. That it arrests the process of oxidation. 



I shall not trouble the Section with further observations in detail on this 

 compound, inasmuch as the report upon it, as a whole, is published in the 

 Transactions of the Association. I pass therefore at once to the other 

 compounds of the amyl series. 



Amylene. 



The substance called amylene was first separated by Balard, of Paris, 

 twenty-one years ago. It attracted but little attention until 1856, when 

 Dr. Snow having read of it, and learned theoretically its composition and 

 physical characteristics, came to the conclusion, on theoretical grounds only, 

 that it was possessed of anaesthetic properties. In process of time he ob- 

 tained some of the fluid ; he found that his theory proved correct in prac- 

 tice, and he was so satisfied with the action of the substance, that he em- 

 ployed it as an anaesthetic in 238 cases. M. Giraldis, of Paris, also em- 

 ployed it in seventy-nine cases. I used it myself in connexion with Snow 

 in three cases, and many other physicians and surgeons' used it also. For a 

 time, indeed, it seemed that amylene would in the end take the place of 

 chloroform, but the promised success was marred by the occurrence of two 

 fatal cases, from its inhalation, in the hands of Snow himself. 



Since that period, (July 30, 1857, date of the second fatal case,) amylene 

 has fallen into entire disuse. Snow during the last year of his useful life 

 'returned to chloroform, and I have occasion to know, from my intimate 

 friendship with him, that the occurrence of the fatal accidents caused him 

 as much anxiety as surprise. It has been suggested since Snow's- death 

 that the specimen of amylene which he used was not pure, but was in fact a 

 compound of various substances. This may be true, but it is certain that 

 he had used the same specimen successfully in other cases, and I have experi- 





