2i< 
ACTION OF ANAESTHETICS. 
gas), which has all the chemical reactions of oxygen, but is 
much more soluble in water and the serum of the blood 
than pure oxygen, and, therefore, is much more readily 
taken up. This compound meeting with the carbon of the 
blood, carbonic acid gas is formed in large quantities, with 
the production of anaesthesia to a certain extent. Or we 
may, on the contrary, administer the carbon, as the oxide of 
carbon or any of the hydro-carbons, alcohol, the ethers, &c. ; 
in this case the blood again furnishes the other constituent 
of carbonic acid, oxygen, and anaesthesia is again the result. 
The stage of excitement corresponds to the period of 
combination of these elements and the formation of carbonic 
acid gas. If the gas is administered as such, there will be 
no stage of excitement, but if the constituents combine 
slowly, and the gas is generated in limited quantities, there 
will be a corresponding stage of excitement. Thus, in the 
stupor of drunkenness, carbonic acid is exhaled in normal 
quantities, but as the stupor passes of, large quantities of 
that gas are exhaled. The venous state of the arterial 
blood, during anaesthesia, is another proof that carbonic acid 
is being generated in large quantities. If it is true that in 
post-mortem examinations of those dying while under the 
influence of chloroform, bubbles of air are found in the 
heart and blood-vessels, it is highly probable that this air is 
carbonic acid gas, unless, perchance, it has entered the cir- 
culation by some mechanical lesion. 
The only means, in his opinion, of any avail in restoring 
a patient from profound or fatal anaesthesia, is artificial 
respiration, or such other means as, by exciting reflex 
action, will restore respiration, and thus hasten the elimina- 
tion of the carbonic acid gas. It has been recommended in 
threatened and apparent death from anaesthesia, to resort to 
the inhalation of oxygen or nitrous oxide. Reasoning from 
the premises which he had given, such remedies would be in 
the highest degree dangerous. To satisfy himself in regard 
to this fact, he had made numerous experiments upon ani- 
mals, and invariably found a fatal issue hastened by adminis- 
tering oxygen. — -iV. Y. Journ . of Medicine , May, 18.56. 
At a subsequent meeting, Dr. Detmold favoured the 
Academy with a written exposition of his views of the 
rationale of the action of chloroform, sulph. ether, and 
nitrous oxide, the three agents employed for the purpose of 
producing anaesthesia. He attributes the action of all of 
them to the production of carbonic acid gas in the system . 
The first two supply the carbon, which absorbing oxygen 
from the blood, and the last supplying oxygen, which ab- 
