ETHER ANAESTHESIA Postgrad Med J: first published as 10.1136/pgmj.22.252.280 on 1 October 1946. Downloaded from 1842 - 1900* By BARBARA M. DUNCUM, D.Phil., Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics, University of Oxford by touch. For the oil is greasy; the water not at Pre-anaesthetic History all so. Then preserve the separated oil for further The first man to give an unequivocal description use. of the distilling of ether from sulphuric acid and alcohol was Valerius Cordus,' about the year I540. The Properties of the Substance which has been Separated Cordus called ether "sweet oil of vitriol," and his "It has all of the properties of sulphur, but all of account of his method of preparing it and of its them are more pronounced because it penetrates properties (see Fig. I) has been translated by Guy liquids more easily, and hastens actions, which K. Tallmadge as follows: sulphur cannot do because it is impeded by its own solidity and dryness, by which it is less pene- "Take six fluid ounces of strong, very biting, trating. This, indeed, this oil can do better than thrice purified wine, and the same quantity of sour sulphur, wherefore it is especially valuable for all oil of vitriol. Mix in a-Venetian glass, and place in putrefactions in the body, and particularly for the a small gourd with a narrow mouth, and seal the plague. It draws the pus and mucus from the mouth with clay. Set aside thus for a whole lung in pleurisy, peripneumonia and hacking cough, month, or two. Then pour out into a gourd to for it may be securely taken internally, and without which should be immediately connected, and sealed any danger. It does not cause stones to form,Protected by copyright. by the heat of the fire, an alembic (that is, ein kolb either in the kidneys or in the urinary bladder; it mit einen angeschmeltzen helm), which we illustrate heals an exulcerated urinary bladder. Its dose below; now place in a small furnace and half cover is one or two drops, or three mixed in a moderate it with ashes. After this, apply a receiving vessel quantity of wine. It may be mixed, moreover, and carefully close the joint with clay, and extract into pills and electuaries made of sugar. It must the six fluid ounces of strong wine which you added. be carefully preserved, however. For only a little But, so that this may be done safely, place into a is got from a pound of sour oil of vitriol, and bath of Maria: thus the wine alone will ascend, because of the tenuity of its nature it easily eva- without the oil. WVhen you shall have extracted porates."2 in the bath the six fluid ounces of strong wine which had been added, place the residue in the The name cether seems first to have been applied furnace so that sand is heaped up to the middle to the liquid by August Siegmund Frobenius.3 part of the gourd, and, having applied a new, small, He demonstrated various of its properties, real empty receiving vessel, carefully seal the joint with and imaginary, before the Royal Society during clay. Now make a slow fire, and slowly extract February of the year I730. Among Frobenius's http://pmj.bmj.com/ all of the moisture which remains in the gourd, experiments on that occasion was one to show until no longer in the bottom, always liquid appears be best .. using the greatest care and watchfulness that you "that this Ather may preserved so moderate the fire that the boiling liquid never under the Receiver in Vacuo, whereas on the reaches the tube of the alembic. Whexi you contrary, exposed to the open Air, its Parts soon have completed the slow extraction, at once remove evaporate, and its whole Bulk . vanishes." the receptacle, with its liquid, and you will see Upon which the Royal Society's reporter com- that it contains two substances, namely, an aqueous mented, "This experiment fail'd remarkably." In liquid and an oily, fatty one. You should separate another experiment with ether Frobenius showed on September 29, 2021 by guest. one from the other at once, however, so that no that "a little of it poured on the Surface of the aqueous substance remains in the oil, for that Hand, affects it with a Sense of Cold equal to that water spoils the oil. The oil itself generally floats the Contact of Snow, and blow upon it but upon the water, especially if the wine shall have from first been entirely extracted upon the bath, but once or twice with your Mouth, immediately your you can easily distinguish the oil from the water Hand becomes dry. Beware however of approaching a lighted candle with your Hand thus wet, lest it *Some of the material relating to inhalation anaesthesia take Fire and burn you"-to which account is contained in this article is based on Dr. Duncum's book, appended the comment, "Succeeded." The Development of Inhalation Anaesthesia with Special During the last decade of the eighteenth century, Reference to the Years I846-I900, now in course of publi- cation by the Oxford University Press for the Wellcome after Lavoisier had elucidated the true nature of Historical Medical Museum. respiration and had shown the part played in it October, I946 ETHER ANAESTHESIA, 1842-1900 281 Postgrad Med J: first published as 10.1136/pgmj.22.252.280 on 1 October 1946. Downloaded from by oxygen and carbon dioxide, and after Priestley and a great depression of spirits; for many days had inhaled oxygen, a new therapeutic vogue came the pulse was so much lowered that considerable into being. This was pneumatic medicine, in fears were entertained for his life."'5 which various gases and vapours-among them These effects were quoted in I839 by the pharma- sulphuric ether-were inhaled in order to cure not cologist, Jonathan Pereira,6 and he recounted also only physical complaints, particularly pulmonary that "the chemist Bucquet, who died of schirrhus ones, but also such mental ailments as melancholy. of the colon, with inflammation of the stomach and Pneumatic medicine had its origins in part in the of the intestines generally, took, before his death, very brilliant circle of learned men centred in a pint of ether daily to alleviate his excruciating Birmingham, of whom Priestley was one. It cul- pains." minated in the founding by Thomas Beddoes, of Referring to the inhalation of ether vapour, the Pneumatic Institution at Clifton, Bristol. Pereira noted its use "in spasmodic asthma, Describing, for example, the method of inhaling chronic catarrh, and dyspnoea, whooping cough, ether devised by the physician R. J. Thornton, and to relieve the effects caused by the accidental about I795, Beddoes wrote: inhalation of chlorine gas." He stated that the "The manner of inhalation is very simple. Two physiological effects "have not been determined," tea-spoonfuls of ather are put into a tea pot. This and described how, after giving fifteen drops to a is held near a candle, and the thumb is put over young rabbit, its death took place within an hour. the spout. When the vapour begins to press on "The symptoms were indisposition to move, the thumb, it [the spout] is transferred to the apparent tendency to sleep, followed by incapacity mouth, and air is drawn into the lungs. This is of supporting the erect position, occasional con- repeated until the whole be consumed, or ease vulsive movements, grating of the teeth, and acquired."4 insensibility." Beddoes added a warning that "the vapour of Protected by copyright. aether is inflammable in air." The Trial of Ether as an Anaesthetic . After Humphry Davy's demonstrations at the At the time when Pereira wrote, and during the Pneumatic Institution (of which he became Super- next few years, the inhalation both of nitrous oxide intendent in I798, at the age of nineteen) that and of ether vapour not for therapeutic reasons inhaled nitrous oxide-in addition to other, more but as a form of entertainment was extremely weighty, physiological considerations-was capable popular, especially in the United States of America. of inducing a state which was both pleasurable to Indeed, in May I846, the Lancet quoted the the subject and entertaining to onlookers, the Western Journal in which "Dr. Miller calls attention "laughing gas" was very frequently inhaled for to the pernicious effects of the inhalation of this amusement's sake. vapour [ether]-a habit which seems to prevail A similarity in the effects of nitrous oxide and among young persons in some districts of the of ether vapour when inhaled was pointed out in United States."7 i8i8 in the Journal of Science, of which Michael Such an ordinary gathering and its very unusual Faraday was then editor. results were described by the young general http://pmj.bmj.com/ practitioner Crawford Williamson Long: "When the vapour of ether mixed with common air is inhaled, it produces effects very similar to "In the month of Dec. I84I, or in Jan. I842, the those occasioned by nitrous oxide. A convenient subject of the inhalation of nitrous oxide gas was method of ascertaining the effect is obtained by introduced in a company of young men assembled introducing a tube into the upper part of a bottle at night in the village of Jefferson, Ga., and the containing ether, and breathing through it; a party requested me to prepare them some. I in- stimulating effect is at first perceived at the epi- formed them I had not the requisite apparatus for on September 29, 2021 by guest.