The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-02-09 00:00:00

an unwonted

tfie best possible term§ with hiin
which continued during the remai

The result of the experiment upon

im immediately to perceive v

ing effeels of the strong yapou

_
surgery without it. H
might be avoided by such a modif

at each successive respiration

in no other light than as the offspring of a dissatisfied

I am, sir, yours truly,

7baleth-park

A. LAYMAN

AND GUM

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SlR,—The article of gum kauri, or cowrie,_is largely

that colony, youwill perhaps give-insertion to the follow-

accompanied a ship-

ihng wax

>-).;

larynx, trachea, and bronchial tubes, which often Occasion
coughing, nausea, and other distressing effects ; indeed he
felt certain, that many would feel a greater amount of pain
and inconvenience from inhaling the vapour in this manner,
than from undergoing many of the minor operations of

felt also that the inconvenience
in of the apparatus

El 3 0111J43laIlai/IC 1.12 c rat ...tat. tar a,oissa,
lilted with atmospheric air, and gradually rendered stronger

In order to test this, he requested the youth who had
before made several ineffectual attempts, to allow him
(Mr. S.) to administer it ; and he proceeded as follows :
.

held it gitite close, allowing him to brCathe freely through
both mouth and nostrils. He then placed his finger and
thumb upon the nose, and gradually compressed the nos-
trils, thus lessening by degrees the quantity of atmospheric
air admitted through them, and consequently increasing
the quantity and strength of the vapour inhaled through
:onstrained to admire her much, I the mouth. This method was completely successful : the

• •
double tooth extracted 'without the slightest appearance of
pain. The patient shortly afterwards_ came to himself,

and, on being asked if he felt any pain, he exclaimed,
" hit out 7" and could only satisfy himself of the fact by
putting his fingers into his mouth, and feeling the vacant
space where the tooth had been.
He declared that he had felt nothing, but thought he
had " surrazin z'd by sunshine." " That he never
saw so much sunshine in his life, and that he tried to get
out of it, but,could not."
The result of these experiments the speaker said 1

the apparatus, which he believed would render it comp
as it would enable the surgeon to administer the va

ad
n of
Fete,
)our

enectuauy to many persons wno coma not mnaie it at au,
by means of any of the apparatus hitherto used, and fur-
ther it would enable the operator to modify the strength
and quantity, in any way that might be required by the
different constitutions of different patients. To effect
this, he proposed to add to the present apparatus an air
valve, composed of a small cylinder, the bottom of which
should open into the present apparatus above the vapour
valve. In the interior'of this cylinder should be a pro-
jecting ring, turned and ground true, to act as a seat for a
valve, turned in the shape of a frustrum of a cone, and

fixed with the small end uppermost on a spindle, the
top of which should move through a hole in the cover
of the cylinder, and the lower end through a guide rod
fixed across the cylinder beneath the cone. The lower
end of this cylinder should be surrounded by a spiral

ae ring,
_
A 0 , 0 • _,
and retain it there air-tight, while the upper end of the
spindle which projects through the valve cover should be
furnished with a smdll milled head, so that it might be
pressed dOwnwards, and the air admitted through the an-
nular space between the cone and the ring.

le cone up in

Now it would be evident that, if at the- commencement
of the process of inhaling, the patient should be unable
to bear the full strength of the vapor, the operator pressed
down the button, as in the second diagram, which showed
the valves in section, the atmospheric air would be ad-
mitted through the perforations in the valve cowl., and
passing through the annular -space would mix with the
vapor of the Ether, so as considerably to dilute it, while
as the pros u e on the button was decreased the cone
would rise, and by continually diminishing the annular

space decrease the supply of air; until at length when it
had risen into its place, the supply of air would be entirely
cut off, and the patient would be enhaling the strong
Ether Vapor only. ..

The' second diagram shelved a ;till. simpler form of
Valve, it merely consisted of a conical hole in the side of
the vapor tube, which could be opened and closed by a
onical plug, acted upon by a lever precisely like the key
ply so good
Le of such

first, as it was not capa

Many other forms of valve might be devised, but he
thought those he proposed would be found as good as
any, they possessed. the advantage of great simplicity,
while they gave the operator the power of regulating the
application of the vapor to the greatest nicety. He could
commence with a delicate patient, by giving the vapor in
a diluted form, and could increase its strength by imper-
ceptible degrees, and that slowly or rapidly, exactly as the
patient could bear it, while when a state of unconscious-
ness was once produced, the strong vapour could be con-
tinued or resumed without any danger of the valve ad-
mitting air, as it would be kept secure by the spring,
without any care on the part of the operator. He felt
that the application of Ether to produce insensibility dur-
ing surgical operations, was one of the most" important
discoveries of the day ; it would save an immense amount
of human suffering, and no doubt as it became more ex-
tensively known, it would be the means of saving many
lives, as persons were too apt, when suffering under dis-
eases requiring severe operations, to delay, under the ap-
prehensions of the great suffering which they would have
to undergo, until too late. Under these circumstances he
should offer no apology for bringing his proposed improve-
ment of the apparatus before the Society ; he felt anxi-
ous to have the member's opinions upon it; in order that
if his views were correct it should become as extensively
known and adopted as possible.
Mr. Salt read an article from the Atheneum on the
same subject, describing a number of cases in which the
Ether had been successfully administered. Several 01
the meeting tried the effect of the apparatus, and occa-
sioned much amusement by their varied descriptions of
what they felt during the process.
A cordial vote of thanks was then given to Mr. W.
Smith for the use of his apparatus, and also to Mr. C. I.
Smith for his interesting communication.
Mr. Arstall exhibited a very curious vegetable produc-
tion from Africa; after which the members adjourned to
the Coffee Room

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