408 Appendix. 



the chloric ether you advised me to send, and they will immediately 

 forward it to the gentleman you designated. The price of chloric 

 ether, you must be aware, will form no objection to its general use 

 as a medicine."* As regards the moral effect of using chloric ether 

 as a medicine, there is no more danger than from other medicines of 

 which alcohol is the vehicle. Some highly respectable physicians, 

 it is true, are of the opinion that no such preparations should be used 

 medicinally, but this appears not to be the general opinion of the 

 faculty. 



At present, no other vehicle than alcohol is known by which chloric 

 ether can be rendered manageable ; in alcoholic solution it may be 

 given, either in small doses, or freely, if largely diluted with water. 



Remark. — As no accurate examination has been made in point of 

 theory, we cannot say precisely what takes place during the distilla- 

 tion of alcohol from chloride of lime. It is, however, worthy of no- 

 tice that, as alcohol is believed to be composed of olefiant gas and 

 water, (or at least of elements in such relative equivalents that they 

 may admit of being so assorted) and as ether has a similar constitu- 

 tion, although in a different ratio of the equivalents, and as chloric 

 ether has been heretofore produced by the combination of chlorine 

 and olefiant gas, it seems hardly to admit of a doubt, that in distill- 

 ing alcohol from chloride of lime, the latter gives its chlorine to the 

 olefiant gas of a part of the former, and thus produces chloric ether 

 which passes over, in solution, in another portion of the alcohol, while 

 the water of that portion of the alcohol which afforded the olefiant 

 gas, or the water which may be supposed to be produced by a com- 

 bination of the elements, is detained by the lime. 



Can any method be devised by which the alcohol can be detached 

 from the chloric ether, and the latter obtained concentrated and in 

 quantity ? — Editor. 



Yale College, January 6, 1S32. 



* Mr. Guthrie even names a price at which it may probably be afforded, and al- 

 though it might be premature to mention it now, I may remark, that it is very low. 

 Mr. G., or his agents in New York, will supply the chloric ether in any quantity, 

 and send it in any direction. 



