RHIGOLENE,  ETC. 
363 
infectious  matter  passes  off  mainly  from  the  lungs  of  diseased 
animals,  and  that  it  attacks  healthy  ones  through  the  same 
channels.  It  is  suspended  in  the  air  with  fogs,  vapor,  and 
gaseous  products  of  decomposition,  settling  on  rafters  and  in 
crevices  whence  mechanical  purification  would  be  unlikely  to 
dislodge  it.  Partaking  in  this  manner  of  the  physical  proper- 
ties of  a  vapor,  or  of  fine  dust,  it  is  clearly  hopeless  to 
attempt  to  combat  the  virus  by  non-volatile  solid  or  liquid 
disinfectants. 
18.  For  this  reason  charcoal,  chloride  of  zinc,  (Sir  William 
Burnett's  disinfecting  fluid),  solutions  of  metallic  salts,  and 
other  similar  substances  are  of  very  limited  use.  Moreover, 
chloride  of  zinc  (and  this  is  probably  true  of  the  other  metallic 
chlorides)  has  been  proven  to  possess  no  efficacy  in  destroying 
specific  infective  emanations.  What  is  wanted  is  a  volatile  and 
liquid  disinfectant,  which,  after  first  acting  on  the  excreta,  the 
floors,  walls,  and  stalls  of  the  shed,  will,  by  its  quality  of  gaseous 
diffusion,  rise  into  the  air,  enter  the  lungs  of  the  animals,  per- 
vade the  whole  building,  and  attack  the  hidden  germs  of  infec- 
tion, which  otherwise  would  escape.  In  addition  to  this  the 
agent  must  do  its  work  with  as  little  inconvenience  as  possible 
to  the  cattle  and  their  attendants. — Lond.  Chem.  News,  May 
25,  1866. 
(To  be  continued.) 
RHIGOLENE  *—  A  PETEOLEUM  NAPHTHA  FOR  PRODUCING 
ANAESTHESIA  BY  FREEZING. 
[Read  before  the  Boston  Society  for  Medical  Improvement,  April  9th,  18&8,f  and  communicated 
lor  the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal.] 
By  Henry  J.  Bigelow,  M.  D., 
Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  Massachusetts  Medical  College. 
The  above  name  is  proposed  as  convenient  to  designate  a 
petroleum  naphtha  boiling  at  70°  F.,  one  of  the  most  volatile 
*  Rhigolene,  from  extreme  cold,  to  which  is  added  the  euphonious 
termination  of  most  of  the  other  petroleum  naphthas. 
f  About  three  weeks  after  my  first  experiments  with  rhigolene,  I  first 
learned  that  Prof.  Simpson,  of  Edinburgh,  had  lately  employed  "  kero- 
solene  "  for  this  purpose. 
