ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF THE METHYL COMPOUNDS. 171 
PART I—ON THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF CERTAIN OF THE 
SUBSTANCES BROUGHT FORWARD OR DESCRIBED IN PRE- 
VIOUS REPORTS, 
BricHLoRmwE or MeruyreEne. 
In my last Report I described that the bichloride of methylene, C 43 Ww 
was an excellent anesthetic substance, and for many reasons preferable to 
chloroform. I have since confirmed this view fully by practice. After sub- 
jecting myself to the action of the vapour to the production of perfect insen- 
sibility, I ventured to administer it for surgical purposes on the 15th of 
October last. The sleep produced was of the deepest and gentlest character, 
and the operation, performed by Mr. Spencer Wells, and which lasted 35 mi- 
nutes, was quite painless. One trifling difficulty only stood in the way: the 
air of the room being warm, and the fluid haying a low boiling-point, the 
water from the breath of the patient, with which the inhaler was saturated, 
became frozen, and was somewhat troublesome to use. This difficulty was 
soon met by the invention of a new form of inhaler, exhibited to the Section. 
This inhaler answers, not only for the administration of bichloride of methy- 
lene, but for all fluids which boil at a low temperature and are useful for in- 
halation. 
The instrument is constructed in such manner that the fluid can be con- 
veyed, grain by grain, and distributed in the form of spray on a surface 
of thin flannel, spread over a mouthpiece made of vulcanite, 
Bichloride of methylene differs from chloroform in action in several parti- 
culars. The anesthetic sleep is produced more quickly, and when produced 
is more prolonged. On the other hand, recovery, when it commences, is far 
more rapid; indeed the period of recovery, according to my experience, is 
never extended over four minutes, and there are no prolonged or painful 
after-effects, 
When animals are allowed to sleep to death in vapour of bichloride of 
methylene, the lungs are found containing blood, but not congested, while 
the heart contains blood on both sides. In this respect the vapour acts dif- 
ferently from both chloroform and ether. After death in chloroform-vapour 
the lungs are left bloodless, and the right side of the heart gorged with 
blood. After death from vapour of ether the lungs are left intensely con- 
gested, with the heart containing blood on both sides, 
Bichloride of methylene holds a place between ether and chloroform. Tt 
is safer than chloroform, but not so safe as ether. In matter of efficiency of 
action it is equal to chloroform, while it is quicker in action, and more per- 
sistent, and far more manageable than ether. 
‘Bichloride of methylene has been largely used by other observers during 
the past year. Reports of its employment have reached me from New York, 
Paris, Hanover, and other parts of Germany, from Australia, and from dif- 
- ferent towns in England. These reports are unexceptionally good, and no 
fatal accident has as yet befallen the administration. 
There is, however, as yet one drawback to its general introduction ; I 
mean the difficulty of manufacturing it on a large scale at a reasonable cost. 
It is also, when pure, more difficult to keep than chloroform, its boiling-point 
being at least 33 degrees lower on Fahrenheit’s scale (18°-3 C.). 
The question of the exact composition of the bichloride of methylene has 
been recently determined from analysis by one of our best organic chemists, 
Mr. Perkin, who has confirmed the composition as C H,Cl,. He has, however, 
made a correction of the boiling-point, which he places at 104° F, (40° C.), 
