338 
THE USE OF THE OHLORURETS 
first is not always practicable, proper instruments may not be at 
hand, or persons able to use them may not be found: the 
second requires a bold operation, which is not always free from 
accident. 
The alkalis have been principally proposed to neutralize the 
gas, and among them ammonia has always occupied the chief 
rank ; but far from preventing, this alkali has often accelerated 
the suffocation of the animal, especially in sheep. In many 
other cases the alkalis have been employed without effect, 
especially where carburetted hydrogen has been the principal 
ingredient in the gas. On these accounts I have been most 
anxious to discover a medicine which shall accomplish the de¬ 
sired object w ithout risk of fatal accidents. 
To simplify the therapeutical examination of these disten¬ 
tions of the stomach from the extrication of gas, I shall divide 
them into recent and chronic. I compare the gaseous products 
of recent indigestions to those which result from the first 
CD 
fermentation of vegetable masses, and in which carbonic acid 
and carburetted hydrogen prevail. In chronic fermentations, 
and when the fermentation is more advanced, sulphuretted 
hydrogen predominates. Although we possess only some iso¬ 
lated works on the analysis of the intestinal gases in our 
domestic quadrupeds, we are warranted in concluding that they 
principally consist of hydrogen and its compounds. The facts 
related by Chabert and Barrier, and especially the analyses of 
MM. Frerni and Lameyan, justify us in this conclusion. Their 
experiments were made on a cow: that cow was exceedingly 
swelled; they obtained the gas by puncturing the rumen, and 
they found it to be composed of eight parts of sulphuretted 
hydrogen, fifteen of carburetted hydrogen, and five of carbonic 
acid. After this analysis, and the simple view which I had 
taken of these analyses, I w as led to think, that since hydrogen 
predominated in the g*aseous products, it was only necessary to 
select a substance which had a strong affinity for that gas in 
order to induce it to enter into, new combinations, and con¬ 
sequently to condense it. Chlorine first suggested itself to me 
as a simple means of realising my wishes; but as it is exceed¬ 
ingly difficult to administer chlorine in any degree of purity, 
the chlorurets next attracted my attention. Before, however, I 
applied my theory to the treatment of these gaseous develop¬ 
ments in animals, I determined to institute some chemical ex¬ 
periments which should bear directly on the point. Into a tube 
filled wfith mercury I introduced a mixture of carbonic acid gas, 
and sulphuretted and carburetted hydrogen, I next passed a 
