184 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
MODOC UN ey IND tees IN le, 
BROMIDE OF ETHYL. 
R. WOOD BROWN, M. D., D. D. S., KANSAS CITY, Mo. 
It has long been known that certain drugs would produce insensibility, also 
that these drugs were often uncertain and unsafe in their action, amongst which 
are the poppy, mandragora, henbane, hemp, etc. Ice bags were used to produce 
local anzesthesia by its intense refrigerant effect while small operations were per- 
formed, such as opening felons, abcesses, etc. In China, haschisch was used to 
produce insensibility during operations, as far back as the year 220, the patient 
recovering after several days. Prior to 1846, opium was sometimes used to pro- 
duce insensibility to pain, but this agent was not safe and was uncertain in its de- 
sired results; certainty and safety being essential to the successful administration 
of anesthetics. The year 1846 opened a new era in the surgical world, and gave 
to man the priceless boon of anesthesia. On Dec. 11th, 1846, Dr. Horace 
Wells, of Conn., demonstrated the practicability of anesthesia by having a sound 
tooth extracted while under the influence of Nitrous Oxide Gas. Then followed 
the discovery of Ether anesthesia by Dr. Morton, of Mass, Simpson of Edin- 
burgh discovering Chloroform anzesthesia soon after. With these three anesthet- 
ics we are all familiar, and their respective merits need not be discussed here. 
The substance, Bromide of Ethyl, is a new anesthetic, and one that bids fair 
to take its place amongst the others. Dr. R. J. Leois, of Phila., has used this 
new agent more than any one else, and with such success as to warrant its being 
subjected to a thorough trial. Dr. Laurence Turnbull, of Phila., has also used 
this agent, and he advises its use. This Bromide of Ethyl or Hydrobromic Ether, 
has an agreeable odor, and does not irritate the respiratory apparatus, a fact 
which is greatly in its favor. ‘The nausea and vomiting which is associated with 
chloroform and ether, is not met with during Bromide of Ethyl anesthesia. It is 
administered by the same method as chloroform and ether, but has the advantage 
over the latter of being non-inflammable. According to Turnbull the first 
drachm must be crowded upon the patient; if not, it is apt to act slowly. Every 
new agent in medicine should, at first, be used with care and after close study. 
“With Bromide of Ethyl, we have a comparatively new anesthetic, but the many 
successful operations under it, upon both animals and man, by men of known 
ability, will certainly commend it to the professions of medicine and dentistry. 
From its rapidity of action, and the short time in which consciousness returns; 
Bromide of Ethyl becomes peculiarly adapted to operations in the dental chair. 
Dr. J. Marion Sims narrated a case before the New York Academy of Medi- 
