22 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 
[Biolog. 
was taken to regulate the supply of heat. The brown or reddish volatile sub- 
stance which is given off when the heat used is too great, so irritates the 
throat as to cause nausea, and oblige the patient to cease inhaling. 
When carefully inhaled, a part of the alkaloid is deposited on the throat 
and in the mouth, where its sub-bitter taste is soon perceived. To guard 
against error, which might arise from swallowing these portions of the alka- 
loid, I refrained from swallowing whilst inhaling, and frequently rinsed the 
throat with water. 
Upon four occasions, I noted the symptoms caused by the cinchonia thus 
employed, taking care to allow the excitement of the system produced by the 
inhalation to pass away before I counted the pulse. In three instances the 
pulse fell, losing from 6 to 10 beats per minute. In the fourth, the pulse re- 
mained a few beats above the normal number. The person on whom these 
experiments were made is liable to still greater depression of cardrac energy, 
when under the influence of quinia. At first, it was difficult to separate the 
ordinary signs of cinchonism, from the feelings of cerebral confusion, caused 
by breathing too rapidly. These sensations, however, were evanescent. At 
the end of a quarter of an hour, or even less, the head was clear, and within 
half an hour afterwards the patient felt a quickly increasing headache, with 
giddiness, and sometimes a feeling as though the brain was swelling into 
monstrous bulk. These sensations passed away within four or five hours, un- 
less the inhalation was renewed. 
Still uncertain as to whether or not the alkaloid entered the blood, I 
caused a healthy adult, aet. twenty-nine years, to inhale the fumes from forty 
grains of the heated cinchonia four times in one day. Symptoms of cincho- 
nism were felt only after the first inhalation, which was made at 10 A. M.; 
at 12 M. the second inhalation took place, and at the same time four ounces 
of clear urine, s. g. 1023, were passed. The other inhalations occurred in 
the afternoon and evening, but none other of the urine passed was saved, 
until 7 A. M. next day. 
The first specimen was examined by Bouchardat's test, the iodated iodide of 
potassium. This reagent gave a faint but decisive brown precipitate of iodide 
of cinchonia, when employed in the usual way ; when, however, I placed 
in a test tube a portion of the test solution, and slowly poured upon it the 
lighter wine, a profuse deposit of the iodide announced the presence of cin- 
chonia in the urine. In the usual mode of making this test, — although the 
precipitate is perceptible enough, — it almost immediately redissolves in the 
urine, which appears to possess a remarkable power of dissolving the iodides of 
cinchonia and quinia, since when these precipitates are thrown down from an 
aqueous solution of a salt of either alkaloid, they are found to be very insolu- 
ble. The second specimen of urine contained only traces of cinchonia, and 
twenty-four hours after the last inhalation no evidence of the presence of the 
alkaloid in the urine could in any way be obtained. 
It will be readily seen from what I have said, that I do not anticipate any 
remarkably valuable practical results from the new mode of administering 
cinchonia, in vapor. The want of therapeutic power in this alkaloid, when 
compared with quinia, — dose for dose, — the difficulty of regulating the heat 
so as to volatilize, and yet not decompose it, as well as the unpleasantness of 
the process of inhalation, combine to deprive these experiments of any great 
practical utility. In a single case of tertian intermittent fever, I employed 
the inhalation of cinchonia vapor. The patient had no new attack for one 
month, although no other ulterior measures were employed. The case was a 
very irregular and uncertain one, and I therefore attach but little faith to this 
single therapeutic test. I should add that my patient complained a good deal 
of the effect of the alkaloid upon his glottis and larynx. For a time it al- 
tered the tones of his voice very considerably. 
In two cases of chronic bronchitis, of long standing, I also used the fumes 
[Dec. 
