280 report — 1865. 



nor do I doubt the possibility of sustaining such reduction of irritability for 

 several hours. 



The iodide of aniyl might possibly also be found useful as a means for 

 bringing forth the medicinal virtues of iodine itself in the many cases for 

 which that element is now, under other forms, so usefully employed. It 

 would make, for example, an excellent embrocation for glandular enlarge- 

 ments, and would come in efficiently in other ways, as will occur to every 

 medical practitioner. It is unnecessary, however, to dwell on these matters; 

 having pointed out the physiological bearings of the question and framed the 

 institute, I leave the practice to experience. 



II. — In the second place, a lesson is taught by these researches relative to 

 the possible cause, or to some allied cause, of certain diseases as yet most 

 obscure in reference to their causation. I showed last year that the nitrite of 

 amyl produced a condition of system closely allied to the disorder known as 

 catalepsy. On this occasion I have indicated that another of these compounds 

 produces symptoms analogoiis to those which characterize the disease known 

 as sleep-walking or somnambulism. But it will further occur to the mind 

 of the philosophical pathologist that hysteria and certain sudden and as yet 

 unexplored forms of paralysis of voluntary muscular power, following peculiar 

 dyspeptic derangements, admit of explanation on the hypothesis of a perverted 

 animal chemistry, and the formation in the organism itself of a substance 

 made from the same organic material and approaching in character one of 

 these amyl-compounds. If, as we know is the fact, a peculiar fermentative 

 process of amylaceous material out of the body leads to the production of the 

 base of the amyl series, it is hard to avoid the thought that in the body, 

 where the zymosis of amylaceous matter is a constant process, no similar per- 

 version should occur. 



III. — The last lesson suggested by this research relates to the modifications 

 of action exhibited in animals by charging them with the same chemical base 

 but with diverse compounds of the base. A very shrewd and profound 

 question was asked me last year by Dr. Heaton of Leeds, when my report on 

 the nitrite of amyl was read, to this effect : — Is the action of the compound 

 due to the base, or to the compound' as a whole ? I was unable then to 

 answer that question properly. Now I can answer it; and I do so by 

 saying, that in the midst of the phenomena observed the base amyl is, if I 

 may use such an expression, the key-note, but variations are introduced as 

 new elements are added. The order of variation is most interesting. Vo 

 take a simple hydrocarbon, the hydruret of amyl, and we have an almost ne- 

 gative body acting not unlike nitrogen and destroying motor force and con- 

 sciousness partly but no more. AVe introduce the element oxygen into the 

 inquiry by using the hydrated oxide of amyl or the acetate, and there is 

 added to the above-named phenomena violent and persistent tremor. AVe 

 move from this to another compound, and bring iodine into the field, and the 

 phenomena now embrace free elimination of fluid from the body, vascularity 

 of the extreme parts with increased action of the heart and of respiration. 

 We change the combination once more to bring nitrogen and oxygen into 

 operation with the base, and the vascular action is raised beyond what is 

 seen from any other known substance, to be followed by a prostration so pro- 

 found that the still living animal might for a time pass for dead. 



It seems to me, but I put out the thought with the profoundest sub- 

 mission, that in these experimental truths, so simple and yet so striking, 



