1879-5 
Safe Anesthesia. - 181 
muscular relaxation ; a condition specially necessary for 
such an operation. The amount used was an ounce and a 
quarter. 
In ase VI. a little girl aged eight had several pieces of 
diseased bone removed from the ankle. The anaesthetic was 
given at 10.3I-; at 10. 5J, the patient was “over,” and the 
operation was begun. After 10. 10, no anaesthetic was given. 
She quickly recovered consciousness,. when there was some 
retching. It appears that this girl had been ailing with sick- 
ness and occasional retching for several days previously. 
The amount used was about two drachms. 
Such is a short record of the six cases observed by the 
committee. The features of special interest in these cases 
are the fadts that there was no injurious effedt observable on 
the respiratory mechanism, although in all cases the 
anaesthetic was given in such doses as to produce complete 
anaesthesia and muscular relaxation, and in one the patient 
was deeply under its influence for twenty-five minutes. 2. 
The pulse diminished in frequency and increased in volume, 
and in the deepest anaesthesia it was steady, regular, full, 
and compressible. There was no indication of failure of 
cardiac adlion in any case : a result anticipated from what 
had been previously observed in animals. 3. There was 
never any pallor of the countenance or blueness of the lips, 
but, on the contrary, and even during the deepest anaesthesia, 
there was a healthy flush on the face and the lips were rosy- 
red. Taking into account the change in the charadter of 
the pulse and in the colour of the face, it would appear that, 
in anaesthesia from dichloride of ethidene, the blood still 
remains in a normal amount in the arterial and capillary 
systems, and does not tend to engorge the venous system 
and right side of the heart, as is apparently the physiological 
adtion of chloroform. 
The experiments on dogs show that a dog will live for a 
lengthened period in a state of complete anaesthesia under 
the influence of ethidene dichloride, whilst it will die in a 
short time when chloroform is used. 
Attention is drawn to the fadt, which is certainly remark - 
abe, that butyl chloride and isobutyl chloride, having the 
same chemical formula, exhibit such different adtions. Ethene 
dichloride and ethidene dichloride are also isomeric, but the 
first of these produced severe convulsions, while the second 
promises to be an excellent anaesthetic without any convul- 
sive effedls. 
Several curious effedts, interesting especially from a 
psychological point of view, have been elicited with regard 
