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PRODUCTION  OF  LOCAL  ANAESTHESIA,  ETC. 
Jour.  Med.  Sci.,  April,  1866,  page  513),  and  continues  :  "  These 
results  are  so  interesting  that  I  make  no  apology  for  bringing 
them  at  once  before  my  medical  brethren.  I  wish  it  to  be  dis- 
tinctly understood,  that  at  the  present  moment  I  only  introduce 
the  method  here  described  for  the  production  of  superficial  local 
anaesthesia.  It  is,  I  believe;  applicable  to  a  large  number  of 
minor  operations,  for  which  the  more  dangerous  agent,  chloro- 
form, is  now  commonly  employed — I  mean  such  operations  as 
tooth  extraction,  tying  nsevus,  tying  piles,  incising  carbuncles, 
opening  abscesses,  putting  in  sutures,  removing  small  tumors, 
removing  the  toe  nail,  dividing  tendons,  operating  for  fistula, 
removing  cancer  of  the  lip  and  other  similar  minor  operations." 
Dr.  Richardson  expresses  the  opinion  that  much  more  may  be 
expected  from  this  mode  of  producing  anaesthesia,  and  thinks 
that  even  a  limb  might  be  amputated  if  some  fluid  of  negative 
qualities  and  low  boiling  point  can  be  obtained  from  the  hydro- 
carbon series,  (a  suggestion  which  appears  to  have  been  realized, 
so  far  as  the  fluid  is  concerned,  in  the  so-called  rhigolene,  of  Dr. 
Bigelow,  See  page  363  of  this  number.)  He  also  entertains  the 
hope  that  a  way  will  be  discovered  to  join  the  agency  of  bodies 
like  morphia,  atropia,  &c,  with  ether  in  this  method  so  as 
to  narcotize  the  parts.  "Reaction  from  anaesthesia  is  in  no 
-degree  painful,  and  hemorrhage  is  almost  entirely  controlled 
during  the  anaethesia." 
Dr.  Calvin  H.  Page,  in  the  paper  before  quoted,  speaks  of  an 
atomizer  of  his  own  invention,  which  differs  from  the  instrument 
*>f  Dr.  Richardson,  the  tubes  being  horizontal  and  parallel  for 
about  three  inches,  but  not  concentric ;  and  he  esteems  it  well 
adapted  to  operating  in  the  mouth.  The  points  of  the  tubes 
approach  each  other  at  right  angles,  and  the  fluid-bearing  tube 
bends  at  right  angles  and  descends  into  the  bottle  of  ether  or 
other  fluid  used.  With  ether  it  produced  a  cold  of  — 4°  and  with 
rhigolene  — 16°  in  one  minute.  Dr.  Page  believes  the  latter  fluid 
to  be  better  adapted  for  operations  of  the  mouth  than  ether.  He 
had  used  it  with  success  in  certain  minor  surgical  operations. 
The  greatest  difficulty  attending  its  use  is  the  fact  of  its  boiling 
below  the  ordinary  temperature  in  summer,  and  its  great  inflam- 
mability.   The  reader  is  referred  to  an  article  on  spray-producing 
