January 11, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
515 
A NEW ANAESTHETIC DERIVED FROM CHLORIDE ' 
OF CARBON.* 
DY MM. HARDY AND DUMOXTPALIER. 
Chloride of carbon combines in definite proportions 
■with uloohol, forming- a liquid which has a fixed boiling- 
point, and possesses very decided anaesthetic properties. 
In its preparation, a mixture of 30-8 parts of chloride of 
carbon and 4’6 of alcohol are submitted to distillation, 
and the portion collected which passes over at 66° C. 
The liquid thus obtained is colourless, transparent, 
mobile ; has an agreeable odour and a density of 1*44, at 
17° C., and under a pressure of 0-755. It boils regularly 
at G6°C., a boiling-point below that of either of the two 
bodies from which it is formed (chloride of carbon boiling 
at 77° C., and alcohol at 78-5° C. It burns difficultly with 
a green-bordered flame ; undergoes no alteration in the 
air, an 1 volatilizes slowly. It is decomposed by water into 
alcohol, which is dissolved, and chloride of carbon which 
is deposited. Sulphuric and hydrochloric acids also 
decompose it with deposit of chloride of carbon. Nitric 
acid, under the influence of slight heat, attacks it briskly 
with disengagement of nitrous vapour and separation of 
chlori lo of carbon ; on concentrating the supernatant 
liquor a deposit of oxalic acid is obtained. 
An analysis of this compound points to the formula 
2 (CC1 4 ), C 2 Ii G 0. The vapour density in one experiment 
was 4-2, in another 4*1, figures which do not correspond 
with the theoretical density according to the above 
formula. The question therefore arises whether there is 
a combination in the proper sense of the word, or a simple 
union of two substances remaining distinct, although 
presenting a fixed boiling-point and all the physical ap¬ 
pearances of a distinctly defined body. Similar facts 
have already been indicated, but their interpretation has 
yet to be found. 
This substance acts as an anaesthetic; its ethereal 
odour and low boiling-point facilitating its employment. 
In experiments made upon a dog of average size, 15 
grams sufficed to produce insensibility to pricking or 
pinching-. Comparative experiments made upon the 
same dog, at intervals of several days, with chloride of 
carbon and with chloroform, also in doses of 15 grams, 
have led the authors to conclude that chloride of carbon, 
and particularly chloroform, act with more intensity than 
the new substance, which, on the other hand, appears 
to cause less restlessness, especially at the commence¬ 
ment of the experiment. In any case the new anaes¬ 
thetic should only be administered to man with the 
greatest care. 
[*** The preparation herein referred to, whatever 
its value as an anaesthetic, cannot be regarded as an in¬ 
dividual chemical substance. Evidently the case is one 
of mere physical mixture. It is not uncommon for 
mixtures of organic liquids to boil at temperatures below 
the boiling-point of either, and it is the rule not to boil 
at the mean between the boiling-points of its components. 
See an article in Pharm. Journ. [3] vol. ii. p. 528 .—Ed. 
Pharm. Journ.] 
SPIRITUALISM AND SCIENCE. 
It would be useless to ignore the fact that what is 
commonly known as “ Spiritualism” has been gradually 
taking up more and more of the public attention, and 
that for good or for evil—unfortunately it has proved 
for evil in many cases—the number of those who plaoed 
faith in the asserted communications from the spirit 
world is steadily increasing. Whether the desire of 
furnishing its readers with a “ Christmas Number,” in 
the approved style of a ghost story, has influenced the 
Times we are unable to say, but certainly on the 26th 
of December an article appeared in its columns, giving 
a brief resume of the controversy arising out of the ap¬ 
pointment of a committee by the Dialectical Society to 
investigate the subject, and it also recorded the writer’s 
experiences at four seances which he attended. It is 
probable that many persons, after reading the article, 
would impatiently throw down the paper as answering 
to the definition of Christmas literature recently given 
by the At/ienccum, as rubbish that would have no chance 
of publication at other seasons. But the discussion has 
probably gone too far to be thus extinguished, and in 
order to keep our readers au courant with a topic which 
promises to assume a position in the scientific world, it 
is proposed to give an abstract of the article and the 
correspondence it has provoked. 
Those who remember the prominence to which “ table¬ 
turning ” attained in the attention of the public some 
twenty years since, will also remember the relief with 
which Professor Faraday’s explanation of it as arising 
from unconscious muscular action was received. Not¬ 
withstanding, however, the weight of the great philo¬ 
sopher’s name, there are probably more believers in the 
supernatural origin of the phenomena now than there 
were then. It is not surprising, therefore, that a desire 
should have arisen that the whole subject should be 
thoroughly investigated by scientific men, so as to ex¬ 
pose any fraud that might be present, and to attribute 
the phenomena to their proper place in the domain of 
science or conjuring. A society called the “London 
Dialectical Society,” took the matter in hand, and ap¬ 
pointed a committee, which, after eighteen months, pub¬ 
lished a report 400 pages long, that has been stigma¬ 
tized as nothing more than a farrago of impotent con¬ 
clusions, garnished by amass of most monstrous rubbish. 
It is unfortunately this style of denunciation which has 
contributed to the present state of affairs. As a rule 
scientific men hold carefully aloof from any attempt to 
solve or expose the mystery, and when the attempt is 
made by others—who may possess every other requisite— 
the cry is that the work is unscientifically done. Professor 
Huxley wrote a note stating that the only good of a 
demonstration of the truth of spiritualism would be to 
furnish an additional argument against suicide, “ for it 
would be better to live a crossing-sweeper than die 
and be made to talk twaddle by a medium, hired at a 
guinea a seance a remark which although at once witty 
and true was completely beside the question. Professor 
Tyndall was willing to pay “ due respect to the invita¬ 
tions of such men as Mr. Wallace and Mr. Crookes, ” 
and to witness whatever new phenomena they were in 
a position to show him. Mr. Gf. II. Lewes sent them 
good advice, and Dr. Carpenter sent them an abstract 
from an article in the Quarterly Review. 
As illustrating the extent to which the belief is spread¬ 
ing, it is said that a volume, consisting of 150 pages of 
reports of private seances , was privately printed by a 
noble earl recently deceased, and that the attestation 
of fifty respectable witnesses is placed before the title- 
page, among whom are a dowager duchess and other ladies 
of rank, a captain in the guards, a nobleman, a baronet, 
a member of Parliament, several of our scientific and other 
corps, a barrister, a merchant, and a doctor. Upper and 
upper middle-class society is represented in all its 
grades, and by persons, who to judge by the posi¬ 
tions they hold and the callings they follow, ought to 
be possessed of intelligence and ability. Under these 
circumstances it is not too much to say that it is time 
that a thorough and practical investigation cleared this 
cloud out of the intellectual sky ; and this task need not 
be scouted by professors or other learned men, by Royal 
or other societies. 
And now for the experience of the Times' correspon¬ 
dent, which we suppose may be taken as a fair specimen 
of what is met with by those who attend those stances .. 
The first was at a private house, where machinery in 
the furniture or any similar deception was out ol the 
question. Mr. Home was the medium, and the party 
* Bulletin Therapeutique and Journ. de Pharm. et de 
Ckimie [4] vol. xvi. p. 428. 
