106 
ON BOILING WATER. 
did not detect the danger early enough. To them “mixtures” like those of the new 
Pharmacopoeia, would be a sort of mitigation of danger,—a kind of drag to the wheel of 
anesthetic progress. Nor did the heart first stand still, as supposed by some ; it was a 
popular error. While as to nitrous oxide, and even ether, they were both now given up 
in America, where they had been extensively administered. 
Dr. Wynn Williams recommended that in collapse from chloroform warm port-wine 
should be injected by an O’Beirne’s tube. He had tried this in collapses from other 
causes, and had found it to act energetically. It seemed, he thought, by increasing the 
warmth and by giving a stimulant at the same time, to meet Mr. Savory’s remarks. 
Dr. Ballard objected to that part of the Report in which the use of chloroform in the 
convulsion of children was recommended. He was satisfied that it had no beneficial 
effect, and asked if its use had been recommended after a trial in cases. 
Mr. Curling said it was not recommended that chloroform should be given until reac¬ 
tion set in after injuries, but then it acted beneficially in the operation by diminishing 
shock. In reply to Dr. Ballard, he said that the recommendations of the committee were 
based on a series of facts, and after a large experience. 
Dr. Harley said the action of chloroform on the corpuscles was but slight, but if ether 
were added, it dissolved the walls of the corpuscles. It had been long observed by Dr. 
Japkson, of New York, that chloroform produced fonnic acid in the system; but it was 
impossible to trace the changes. If blood were shaken up with ether, it would sometimes 
crystallize. Diseased blood would also sometimes crystallize spontaneously, while blood 
after slow death from chloroform, when shaken up with ether, always became like a mass 
of crystals. 
(Dr. Harley then introduced to the notice of the Society an inhaler sent to him by 
Dr. Skinner, of Liverpool, and also an ingenious apparatus, invented by Dr. Squire, for 
measuring accurately the percentage of chloroform.) 
Dr. Pearson said he was surprised to find that chloroform was more feared here than 
in Edinburgh, where it was invented. In Edinburgh apparatus was altogether disregarded. 
He felt certain that it was safer to give chloroform without an.inhaler than with one. 
Dr. Hyde Salter said that chloroform might be given so as to prevent pain and yet 
not produce insensibility ; for this he could vouch, as he had experienced it himself. If, 
then, it could be discovered how to do this, it would not only lessen the risk, but would 
-diminish the fear of the use of the drug. 
Dr. Wright said that the inhaler had been used a year in Mr. Spencer Wells’s ova-> 
riotomy operations, but it was liable to the objection that a good deal of the chloroform 
escaped, and thus affected the bystanders. 
Mr. Birkett, one of the honorary secretaries, said that it had been impossible for him to 
read the whole of the abstract, but he had only omitted those parts which the reporters 
had agreed should be omitted.— Lancet , July 16, 1864. 
ON BOILING WATER. 
A Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution. 
BY W. R. GROVE, ESQ., Q.C., F.R.S., M.R.I. 
A paper by M. Donny (‘ Memoires de l’Acade'mie Royale de Bruxelles,’ 1843) makes 
known the fact, that in proportion as water is deprived of air, the character of its ebulli¬ 
tion changes, becoming more and more abrupt, and boiling like sulphuric acid with sou- 
bresauts , and that between each burst of vapour the water reaches a temperature above 
its boiling point. To effect this, it is necessary that the water be boiled in a tube with 
a narrow orifice, through v r hich the vapour issues ; if it be boiled in an open vessel, it 
continually reabsorbs air and boils in the ordinary way. 
In my experiments on the decomposition of water by heat, I found that with the oxy- 
hydrogen gas given off from ignited platinum plunged into water, there was always a 
greater or less quantity of nitrogen mixed. This I could never entirely get rid of, and I 
was thus led into a more careful examination of the phenomenon of boiling water, and 
set before myself this problem,—what will be the effect of heat on water perfectly de¬ 
prived of air or gas ? 
Tw r o copper wires were placed parallel to each other through the neck of a Florence 
flask, so as nearly to touch the bottom; joining the lower ends of these was a fine plati- 
