Part 35

M. Bouisson has mentioned a case in which death was attributed to ether by a surgeon named Roël, of Madrid. Dolorès Lopes, aged fifty, of very feeble constitution, and addicted to drunkenness, had long suffered from a cancerous tumour of the breast. It was removed after the patient had inhaled ether for half an hour, and it weighed three pounds and a quarter. The patient died seven hours after the operation. But the operation itself was sufficient to account for the death of such a patient; and she could not die from ether at the end of seven hours after inhaling it.

On account of its great safety, ether is extremely well adapted for medical cases, in which it is necessary that a narcotic vapour should be administered by the patient’s nurse.

The Combination of Chloroform and Ether. Some practitioners have recommended the inhalation of the vapour from a mixture of chloroform and ether; but the result is a combination of the undesirable qualities of both agents, without any compensating advantage. Ether is about six times as volatile as chloroform—that is to say, if equal measures of each be placed in two evaporating dishes kept side by side, at the same temperature, the ether evaporates in about one-sixth the time of the chloroform; and when the two liquids are mixed, although they then evaporate together, the ether is converted into vapour much more rapidly; and, in whatever proportions they are combined, before the whole is evaporated the last portion of the liquid is nearly all chloroform: the consequence is that at the commencement of the inhalation the vapour inspired is chiefly ether, and towards the end nearly all chloroform: the patient experiencing the stronger pungency of ether when it is most objectionable, and inhaling the more powerful vapour at the conclusion, when there is the most need to proceed cautiously.

A death which occurred during a surgical operation in America, has been attributed to the mixture of chloroform and ether which was employed; but there is no doubt that the patient died of hæmorrhage. Dr. R Crockett, of Wytheville, Virginia, removed a fatty tumour from the back of a boy, aged five years. Four parts of washed ether by measure were mixed with one part by measure of chloroform, and a drachm of this mixture was poured on a funnel-shaped sponge which was applied near the mouth and nostrils. The tumour was very large, and required two incisions of nine inches in length for its removal. Six arteries required to be tied; and just as the last one was secured, the child began to vomit. He was found to be pulseless, and he died three or four minutes from the commencement of vomiting. Dr. Kincannon, who was present, and watching the patient, said that up to the time he began to vomit, there was nothing in the circulation or respiration to produce the least apprehension.

The operator said that the patient probably lost four ounces of blood, certainly not six. It must be observed that as the blood during an operation is carried away by the sponges, it is impossible to estimate the amount. It could be ascertained only by an analysis of the water in which the sponges are washed. But even admitting that in the present case the loss of blood did not exceed six ounces, it is probable that this amount, flowing suddenly from a child of five years of age, might cause death. Vomiting does not take place when a patient is deeply under the influence of ether or chloroform, and the fact of no signs of over narcotism having appeared, confirms the view that death was occasioned by the loss of blood.

AMYLENE.

This substance was discovered and described in 1844 by M. Balard, Professor of Chemistry to the Faculty of Sciences of Paris. M. Auguste Cahours had given this name five years previously to a product which is isomeric with amylene, and is produced at the same time, but is now termed paramylene.

Amylene is made by distilling amylic alcohol with chloride of zinc. The amylic alcohol is obtained from crude fusel oil, otherwise called oil of grain, or oil of potatoe spirit. The fusel oil must be submitted to a careful distillation, with a thermometer in the retort. It begins to boil at a comparatively low temperature, but that portion only is to be retained which comes over from 266° to 284° Fah. Caustic potash is added, to decompose the œnanthic ether which the distilled liquid contains, and it is then redistilled, and that portion which boils steadily at 270° Fah. is collected as pure amylic alcohol. Amylene can be obtained from amylic alcohol in the same manner that olefiant gas, or ethylene, can be made from common alcohol, namely, by heating it with dishydrating agents, as sulphuric, phosphoric, fluoboric and fluosilic acids, and chloride of zinc; but most conveniently with the last substance, which is the one that M. Balard employed. The product which is obtained when amylic alcohol and chloride of zinc are distilled together, contains at least three distinct hydrocarbons, amylene, paramylene, and metamylene; and the amylene which is the most volatile is separated from the others by successive distillations.

Amylene is a colourless and very mobile liquid, of extremely low specific gravity; being one of the lightest liquids known. The amylene made for me by Mr. Bullock had a specific gravity of 0·659 at 56°. It is very volatile, boiling at 102° Fah. according to M. Balard, and at 95° according to Frankland, and the specific gravity of its vapour is 2·45. It is composed of ten atoms carbon and ten atoms hydrogen, and bears the same relation to amylic alcohol that olefiant gas, or ethylene, bears to common alcohol.

It is inflammable, burning with a brilliant white flame; and in pouring it out by candle light, the same care is required as in dealing with sulphuric ether. A slight explosion may be obtained by applying a light to a mixture of a small amount of its vapour with a large quantity of air.

It is soluble in alcohol and ether in all proportions, but is very sparingly soluble in water, being in fact a hundred times less soluble than many substances which are ordinarily spoken of as insoluble. From a number of careful experiments which I made, I found that water dissolves 2·35 per cent. of its volume of the vapour of amylene. It follows therefore, from the specific gravity of amylene and of its vapour stated above, that amylene requires 9319 parts of water for its solution. The water which has dissolved this small quantity of amylene tastes as distinctly of it as amylene itself.

Amylene has more odour than chloroform, but much less than sulphuric ether, and the odour does not remain long in the patient’s breath. The smell of amylene somewhat resembles that of wood spirit. The first specimens which Mr. Bullock made were slightly offensive, but the odour improved and diminished in strength, as he obtained the substance in a state more nearly approaching to purity. Many persons, who thought the odour disagreeable at first, began to like it after they had been exposed to it three or four times. It is almost without taste, and it produces no irritation, or effect of any kind on the sound skin, even when confined, and prevented from evaporating. The vapour is almost entirely without pungency, furnishing in this respect a remarkable contrast to both ether and chloroform. Its presence can be perceived on first beginning to inhale it, but after two or three inspirations, one cannot tell whether the air one is breathing contains any of the vapour or not. It does not cause any cough unless there is great irritability of the air-passages, or the vapour is breathed of great strength in the very first inspirations.

Amylene produces about as much cold during its evaporation as sulphuric ether does. If a sponge or piece of blotting paper wetted with amylene is exposed to the air, a portion of the moisture of the air becomes condensed on its surface, by the cold caused during the evaporation of the amylene; and by the further effect of the cold the condensed moisture is frozen, and the sponge or paper is covered with hoar frost.

The boiling point of pure amylene would probably be that which I have quoted above from Frankland, viz., 35° cent. or 95° Fah.; but the amylene which has been obtained for inhalation contains other hydrocarbons of an analogous composition, and its boiling point is not steady: 95° Fah. was indeed about the average boiling point of the greater part of the amylene furnished to me by Mr. Bullock, for it usually commenced to boil at 86°, and as it evaporated, the boiling point gradually rose to 109°, or higher.

No method is at present known of separating amylene from the products which come over with it, except a number of distillations; and although these may be carried so far as to obtain a small quantity almost pure, the price of it would be too great to admit of its employment for inhalation. For this purpose, one must be content with a product approaching to purity. Dr. Debout, in an article on amylene, says that the boiling point commences at 28° (82° Fah.), and rises gradually to 40° or 45° (104° or 113°) in the best products which have been obtained by Mr. Bullock of London, M. Hepp of Strasbourg, and the house of Ménier at Paris.

M. Duroy published an elaborate paper on amylene, on April 9th, 1857. In this paper, he gives the result of an examination of four specimens of amylene: the first, which he calls A, was amylene made by Mr. Bullock; the second (B) was the amylene of M. Ménier; the third (C) was some that he had prepared according to the process of M. Hepp; the fourth (D) was amylene which he had obtained by a process which he described. In this process, he employed dry chloride of zinc and amylic alcohol. M. Balard recommended a solution of chloride of zinc of a certain strength to be used. I may state, however, that Mr. Bullock had from the first used dry chloride of zinc.

The following table shows the temperature at which the different specimens began to boil, and the temperature to which they rose before being boiled entirely away.

A 30° cent. = 86° Fah. to 46° cent. = 115° Fah. B 29 „ = 84 „ to 75 „ = 167 „ C 30 „ = 86 „ to 62 „ = 143 „ D 31 „ = 88 „ to 57 „ = 134 „

Mr. Bullock’s amylene went through the smallest range of temperature whilst boiling away.

M. Duroy found that potassium was oxidized to a certain extent in all these specimens of amylene, and a small quantity of hydrogen gas was produced, showing that they did not consist entirely of hydrocarbons, but that there distilled over with them a small quantity, either of amylic alcohol, or amylic ether.

The following table shows the cubic centimetres of hydrogen gas which were disengaged from three grammes of each of the different kinds of amylene.

A 64 B 91 C 75 D 69

Examined in this way, Mr. Bullock’s amylene showed the smallest quantity of impurity; and, next to that, the amylene made by M. Duroy.

M. Duroy found that amylene can be purified from the substances containing oxygen by distilling it again with dry chloride of zinc. He was able to obtain pure amylene, boiling steadily at 35° cent., but to get at this result he made so many distillations that he had only forty grammes of amylene from five litres of amylic alcohol.

He states that the following are the characters of absolute amylene.

To boil steadily at 35° cent.

To be without action on potassium, and to preserve that metal like naphtha.

Not to be coloured, even by prolonged contact with caustic potassa.