26 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
or of quince, appeared to recommend it. Its anaesthetic action 
is less durable than that of chloroform, but, at the same time, 
it acts very rapidly. Its principal advantage was stated to 
reside in the fact that it can be mixed with water in any pro- 
portion, so that the dose can be regulated at will ; it can, more- 
over, be employed in damp, warm sponges, and is not liable to 
decompose by keeping. 
Of late years, cold has been applied in some cases to induce 
local anaesthesia. Dr. John Arnold has advocated the induction 
of insensibility by freezing the part to be operated upon. This 
is based upon the fact that the nerves of sensibility cannot 
perform their functions below a certain temperature. Tlius it 
is that travellers on the summits of high mountains or in the 
Arctic regions are apt to lose their noses, the nerves of the 
frost-bitten part being benumbed by the cold ; gangrene sets 
in without the sufferer being aware of it. 
Local amesthesia has also been produced by the simultaneous 
actions of electricity and a narcotic. Some experiments were 
made upon this subject by Dr. Richardson, in 1859. This 
method of proceeding is very simple : — Upon the part to be 
operated a powerful narcotic is applied, and upon the narcotic 
mixture is placed a flat metallic disc communicating with the 
positive pole of a Bunsen’s or Grove’s battery ; the negative 
pole being applied to some other portion of the patient’s body, 
at a convenient distance from the other pole. The battery 
being put in action, that part of the patient’s body comprised 
between the two poles soon becomes insensible to pain. 
Dr. Richardson has also made the curious discovery that 
the fumes emitted by burning the common Puff-ball Fungus 
( Lijcoperdon proteus), when inhaled, produce amesthesia in a 
similar manner to chloroform and ether. The fumes of this 
fungus have been for some time employed with advantage to 
stupefy bees before taking their honey; it causes no injury to 
these useful insects. This fact probably led Dr. Richardson 
to try its effects upon other animals, and, lastly, upon man ; 
when he arrived at the conclusion that the fumes given off by 
the common puff-ball, when this fungus is burnt upon a hot 
shovel, possess anaesthetic properties in a high degree. 
Carbonic acid gas has been shown quite recently, by Dr. 
Ozanam, of Paris, to be capable of inducing anaesthesia hke 
chloroform, &c. Indeed, its peculiar stupefying action is 
frequently experienced by the French cooks, in whose kitchens 
Avood-charcoal is used in small open grates; and by the inmates 
of counting-houses and warehouses, where ventilation is gene- 
rally bad. The effects of this deleterious gas upon dogs is 
frequently shown to travellers near Naples in the grotto del 
'Cane, a cavern where a large quantity of carbonic gas issues 
