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

THE INHALATION OF ETHER.

We mentioned, in the last Standard, that, at the meet-
ing of the Polytechnic Society, the previous evening, Mr.
C. J. Smith, the treasurer of the society, had exhibited a
beautiful apparatus for inhaling the vapour of sulphuric
ether. We described briefly the apparatus which Mr. Smith
produced, and which he considers an improvement of the
existing plan, as by the modification suggested by him-the
patients are able more readily to inhale the vapour. Two
persons had previously tried, in Mr. Smith's presence, to
breathe the undiluted ether and failed. The first patient,
a young woman, who wanted two or three teeth extracted,
tried the vapour for a few seconds, and then refused to
proceed, saying that something was going down her throat
which she did not like, and she could not be induced either
to give the vapour a further trial or to have the teeth ex-
tracted without it. The second, a youth of fifteen or six-
teen, made two or three trials, but would not persevere,
when he (Mr. S.) volunteered to inhale it, provided a pro-
mise was given his teeth should not be interfered with, as
he had not any that he was at all desirous of parting with.
He commenced, and in 21 minutes was in a state of pro-
found insensibility, in which he remained for about two
minutes, when he recovered. Mr. Smith said, that when
he commenced inhaling the vapour, he resolved to mark,
and recollect as distinctly as he could, the sensations which
he might experience during the process, but that, though
he succeeded in some measure, he felt great difficulty in
describing them. He found the vapour so strong, that he
was at first quite unable to breathe it, as it occasioned a
coughing and irritation of the air passages ; he therefore
hit upon a method of diluting it, by holding the mouth-
piece in such a manner that a little air was admitted to
dilute the vapour, gradually lessening the aperture, until
at length he could breathe the vapour alone without diffi-
culty. After a few inspirations of the undiluted vapour,
he felt that he was losing all power of voluntary motion,
and that be was even the though quite sensible of what
was going on, in fact, It mpletely in the power of the
operator. In a few seconds more he seemed to be sur-
rounded by millions of stars, each tinted with all the pris-
matic colours and in rapid motion, ace panied by a noise
as if all the gongs in the celestial em ire were sounding.
Shortly the noise softened down into delicious music, and
the stars decreased in numbers and brilliancy, until at
length sensation was completely restored. He felt a good
deal bewildered, not being able to conceive where he was,
or how he got there, and he was now quite unable ade-
quately to describe his sensations for the first few seconds,
but they were certainly those of profound wonder, mingled
with a strong idea that the whole affair was, in some way
or other, the result of enchantment. This, however, soon
passed away, and the only remaining effect was a feeling of
lightness and buoyancy, an unwonted inclination to be on
the best possible terms with himself and everybody else,
which continued during the remainder of the day.
The result of the experiment upon himself, however,
led him immediately to perceive why many persons are
unable to inhale the vapour effectually, namely, the irritat-
ing effects of the strong vapour applied suddenly to the
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
surgery without it. He felt also that the inconvenience
might be avoided by such a modification of the apparatus
as should enable the patient to respire first the vapour di-
luted with atmospheric air, and gradually rendered stronger
at each successive respiration.
In order to test this, he requested the youth who bad
before made several ineffectual attempts, to allow him
(Mr. S.) to administer it ; and he proceeded as follows :
He first placed the mouthpiece to the patient's mouth, and
held it quite close, allowing him to breathe 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
the mouth. This method was completely. successful : the
apparatus was removed, the mouth opened, and an upper
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, lie exclaimed,
" /s it out ?" 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 " surroul:ded 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 had
induced him to bring before the Society a modification of
the apparatus, which he believed would render it complete,
as it would enable the surgeon to administer the vapour
effectually to many persons who could not inhale it at all,
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 tor 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
spring, strong enough to force the cone up into the ring,
and retain it there air-tight, while the upper end of the
spindle which projects through the valve cover should be
furnished with a small milled head, so that it might be
pressed downwards, and the air admitted through the an-
nular space between the cone and the ring.
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 covcr, and
passing through the annular space would mix with the
vapor of the Ether, so as considerably to dilute it, while
as the pres_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 showed a still 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
conical plug, acted upon by a lever precisely like the key
of a flute; this however lie did not consider nearly so good
an arrangement as the first, as it was not capable of such
nice gradation.
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-
piehensions 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.
ich the
i
Mr. Salt read an article from the Atheneum 011 the
same subject, describing a number of cases in w
h
Ether had been successfully administered . Several ol
vaairTeadr a ss
Crai;tdi o n°es caof
the meeting tried the effecttby otfliet
the
sioned much amusemen
what they felt during the proc,ess.
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 exhibitedfter which veryaieh t
curious
memberse
vegetable
tionto from Africa; a
adjourned
the Coffee Room.