ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF THE METHYL COMPOUNDS.. 173 
safety. I then prescribed it in an inyeterate case of specific ulceration,in which 
iodide of potassium had failed, and, carrying the dose up to three grains, 
found the most rapid curative result. Further, the great pain and irritability 
of the ulcerated surfaces was singularly relieved. Repeating this observation 
with further success, I solicited permission of Mr. Nunn to treat some hope- 
less cases of cancerous ulcer in the cancer wards of the Middlesex Hospital. 
Four cases were assigned to me, and the suggested plan was carried out by 
Mr. Nunn himself. His report of the results, after four months’ trial, is of 
the most encouraging character. One case of ulceration is reported as healed 
so that the patient has left the hospital ; another, in which there was intense 
hypereesthesia (extreme sensibility of skin), a symptom which had resisted all 
previous means, was directly relieved, and the patient has greatly improved. 
In a third example pain of an extreme kind was relieved; and in the fourth 
the symptoms remain in abeyance. Mr. Nunn concludes by stating that his 
observations show the iodide of methyl can be safely administered for long 
periods of time, that it removes pain, particularly that form of pain called 
hyperzesthesia, and that cancerous ulceration may heal under its use. 
He is not, however, prepared to say that it will prevent the deposit of 
cancer. 
I put before the Section a solution of the iodide as it is ready foruse. The 
solution contains 6 grains of the iodide in 60° of alcohol. The quantity to 
begin with is 10 minims in water. It is agreeable to take. 
The same solution can be administered by inhalation. 
PART IL—AN ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS PHENOMENA CONNECTED 
WITH THE ACTION OF CERTAIN OF THE METHYL AND 
ETHYL COMPOUNDS. 
There are certain of the compounds of the methyl and ethyl series which 
possess the common property of producing sleep and the insensibility of living 
organisms. This general fact seems at first sight to link them all together; 
and in regard to the one fact they are closely united. But there are, not- 
withstanding, points of difference of the most important character. For ex- 
ample, they all sometimes kill during their administration, but they are not 
all equally powerful to kill. This alone is sufficient to distinguish them ; and 
as from them we derive those agencies by which some hundred thousands 
of our kindred are each year relieved of pain with some risk of life, I have 
thought it of moment to study the differences of phenomena presented by 
different agents, so that we may be able to approach to a knowledge of first 
principles, and seize all the real good, with avoidance of what at this moment 
appears an inevitable degree of evil. 
As it was impossible to investigate all the bodies of the series, I confined 
my research to a few representatives only; and, indeed, what has been ga- 
thered in this way is too long to be recorded in anything but abstract. 
Physical Changes of Blood produced by different Methyl and Ethyl 
Compounds. 
When a man or an inferior animal is subjected to one of the ordinary 
anesthetics, great difference is observed in the change of colour of the 
blood, the difference itself being determined by the class of agent that is 
being used. Under the influence of all the chlorides, of both the methyl and 
ethyl series, the blood retains its bright-red colour on the arterial side, while 
on the venous side the colour is slightly heightened. Under the influence of 
the oxides of the methyl and ethyl series the reverse obtains; the arterial 
