48 REPORT— 1867. 



2. All the compounds of amyl which were studied were found to modify i." 

 a singular manner the motive animal power. 



3. One compound, amylene, is an anaesthetic. 



4. All the amyls were found to be antisejjtics ; and acetate of amyl, it was 

 suggested, might probably be used, on an extensive scale, for the preservation 

 of animal substances. 



In respect to the ethyls — 



1. Pure oxide of ethyl was found to be the best and safest anaesthetic for 

 general anaesthesia. 



2. Hydrofluoric ether was found to be a most powerful agent for the de- 

 struction or resolvency of living animal tissues. 



3. Nitrite of ethyl was discovered to possess an action similar to that of 

 the nitrite of amyl, but with this striking difference in young animals, — that 

 when they are made to receive it until they seem to be quite dead, they 

 will remain as if dead for eight and even ten minutes, and will then faintly 

 recommence to breathe, the heart following in its action ; this condition, look- 

 ing like an actual return of life, will sometimes last as long as half an hour, 

 and will then gradually cease, the animal lapsing into actual inertia or death. 



Such are a few of the facts elicited by these preceding researches ; but as 

 the Association is always anxious to learn what practical results have been 

 obtained from its works, or from works performed under its auspices, I shall 

 be pardoned if I refer to one or two of the results that have followed upon 

 the present series of Reports. 



The experimental tniths which have been brought out in regard to the 

 nitrite of amyl have led to the application of this substance to the alleviation 

 of human suffering. Dr. Heydon of Dublin has used the nitrite with advan- 

 tage in the treatment of cholera, in the later stages of the malady. DDuted 

 with ether in the proportion of 5 per cent., the nitrite has been shown 

 to exert a marked controlling inHuencc over painful spasmodic breathing ; 

 and I hear that Dr. Brunton, of Edinburgh, has resorted to it with great 

 success in the treatment of one of the most terrible of all maladies, cardiac 

 apnoea, or angina pectoris. 



The Report last year on ether, although written very briefly, has excited 

 much practical interest both here and in America. It has led to the intro- 

 duction iuto medicine of a more stable and reliable ether compound ; and it 

 has caused many surgeons to return, with satisfaction, to the iise of ether as 

 an anaesthetic in preference to the more dangerous agent chloroform. 



It is my hope that the Report now in hand, and which at the request of 

 the Committee is, this year, on the Methyl compounds, will not prove of less 

 service. 



RESEARCH ON THE METHYLS. 



The methyl series of organic compounds are already known in physiologi- 

 cal science through one or two of their representatives, direct or substituted. 

 Thus we have in the series the hydride of methyl, or marsh-gas, or fire- 

 damp, which, as a cause of death, has been generally studied, and which, in- 

 deed, has not escaped the intelhgent observation of Mr. Nunneley, of Leeds, 

 as an anaesthetic agent. Then, again, as substitution-products of this scries, 

 we have the well-known agent chloroform, the terchloride of formylc ; and 

 lastly, we have a substance concerning which there has been considerable 

 discussion of late, the tetrachloride of carbon, also an anaesthetic. 



Before I go further, and that all may be carried with me, let me briefly 



