248 
Bromide  of  Ethyl. 
.Vm.  lour.  Pharm. 
May,  1880 
The  inferences  from  these  cases  seem  to  impress  us  as  follows: 
The  first  and  second  rabbits,  which  had  been  treated  with  respec- 
tively ether  and  ethyl  bromide,  died  under  similar  circumstances.  The 
modes  of  death  appear  to  have  been  occasioned  by  a  gradual  paralysis, 
of  the  cardiac  inhibitory  motor  centres,  while  the  sudden  heart  failure 
in  the  third,  which  is  typical  of  chloroform  accidents,  seems  to  indicate 
paralysis  of  the  cardiac  motor  centres. 
While  it  is  hardly  justifiable  to  infer  from  experiments  on  animals  as 
to  the  eff'ect  on  the  human  organism,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  they  go 
far,  along  with  the  many  trials  on  human  beings  and  those  upon  our- 
selves, to  show  that  a  direct  toxic  influence  from  pure  ethyl  bromide 
on  the  organism  need  not  be  apprehended, 
That  pure  ethyl  bromide  is  per  se  an  absolutely  safe  anaesthetic  can 
as  yet  not  be  positively  stated,  but  that  its  action  appears  to  be  quite  as 
safe  as  ether,  and  certainly  more  so  than  the  treacherous  and  dangerous 
chloroform,  seems  to  us,  as  deduction  from  above-related  experiments, 
out  of  question. 
We  can  certainly  hail  this  new-comer  as  another  agent  destined  to 
alleviate  sufferings,  which,  by  its  own  merits,  will  win  its  way  into  the 
ranks  of  those  we  now  hold  as  recognized  measures  for  combating  dis- 
ease, and  as  such,  propose  that  by  this  body  it  be  recommended  for  a 
position  in  the  National  Pharmacopoeia  about  to  be  revised. 
Philadelphia,  April,  1880. 
BROMIDE  OF  ETHYL  (Hydrobromic  Ether). 
By  Joseph  P.  Remington. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  April  20. 
This  anaesthetic,  which  has  attracted  considerable  attention  lately, 
was  the  subject  of  a  paper  by  the  writer  in  1877,  which  was  read  before 
the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  its  meeting  at  Toronto, 
Canada.  At  that  time-  the  process  which  was  recommended  was  a 
modification  of  that  of  Personne,  and  served  well  on  the  small  scale  to 
make  the  preparation  experimentally  ;  it  was  not  expected  that  the 
demand  would  at  any  time  be  so  great  as  to  require  a  process  adapted  to 
a  manufacturing  scale  ;  but  the  calls  became  so  frequent  that  it  was 
found  necessary  to  devise  a  more  practicable  method  than  the  one  then 
recommended. 
