1915.] EVAPORATION OF ETHER FROM OILS. 271 



and melena as after-effects. These after-effects, which one case of 

 death directly attributable to the procedure, caused the method to 

 again fail in securing serious recognition until 1903 when Cunning- 

 ham^° employed air as a vehicle for sweeping the ether vapor into 

 the colon. In 1909 Leuguen, Money and Verhac^^ used oxygen as 

 the vehicle for the ether vapor. Buxton^- in his splendid book on 

 " Anesthesia " says that he found the procedure most satisfactory for 

 certain operations, for example, those having to do with the mouth, 

 nose, etc., but he remarks " Deaths have occurred." Sutton's^' in- 

 troduction of a return flow tube for these gases introduced and un- 

 absorbed constituted a distinct advance in anesthesia by colonic ab- 

 sorption. 



In an effort to avoid certain well-known difficulties in intravenous 

 anesthesia, Gwathmey experimented with mixtures of normal saline 

 solution and ether per rectum. The concentration of ether in the 

 aqueous solution was so small that excessive volumes of liquid were 

 needed, and furthermore the ether parted from the solution so very 

 rapidly that experimentation along those lines was abandoned. 

 Gwathmey then applied a solution of ether in olive oil. As oil and 

 ether make perfect solutions in all mixtures, it was his hope to re- 

 duce the total bulk of the fluid introduced into the colon by using 

 a stronger solution of ether in oil than is possible with any known 

 aqueous mixture. As oils are lubricants, it was also hoped to 

 avoid the irritation of the mucous membrane previously noted. The 

 ether may always be separated from the oil by warming, but unless 

 the temperature of the mixture is suddenly raised to an excessively 

 high point, the ether passes off deliberately. It was thought that 

 the evaporation of the ether would induce some cooling of the mix- 

 ture with a consequent checking of the evaporation and its absorp- 

 tion. These premises coupled with slow absorption by the colon in 

 comparison with the rapid elimination by the lungs would auto- 



10 Cunningham and Leahy, Boston Med. and Surg. J., April 30, 1905 ; 

 Vide also Dumont, Correspond. Bl. f. Schweitzer Aerzte, 1903; 1904; 1908; 

 Krugeline, Wiener klin. Woch., Dec, 1904. 



11 Compt. rend. Soc. Biol., June, 1909. 



12 " Anesthesia," London, 1907. 



1^ For full account of technique and literature, see " Anesthesia," by 

 Gwathmey and Baskerville, Appleton, New York, pp. 431-457, 1914. 



