AN IMPROVEMENT IN ANAESTHETICS
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jasper Wetter, of Wimbledon, Surrey, for an Invention
of AN IMPROVEMENT IN ANAESTHETICS communicated to him from abroad
by Urial King Mayo, of Massachusetts, United States of America,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jasper Wetter at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st August 1883.
JASPER WETTER, of Wimbledon, Surrey "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ANAESTHETICS,"
a communication to me from abroad by Urial King Mayo, of Massachusetts, United
States of America,
Nitrous oxide or "laughing gas," as otherwise termed,-has for several years past
been employed to produce anaesthesia, for surgical operations, more especially in
the extraction of teeth, but it frequently does not operate with the desired effect,
or is unreliable and dangerous, as it occasionally produces on the patient a deathly
pallor, checks the insensible perspiration and retards circulation of the blood.
This invention has for its object to combine with the nitrous oxide, a sedative or
sedatives or something whereby its dangerous or disagreable effects, as mentioned,
will be prevented, and enable it to be employed in most if not all surgical
operations, with comparative if not entire safety and success.
Ey impregnating the gas with the vapor of an alcoholic infusion of hops and
poppies, it can be rendered practically innocuous and specially advantageous when
used by inhalation to produce insensibility to pain, as when so employed it not only
operates quicker but induces a natural and gentle perspiration, and preserves the
pulse at or about at its normal condition.
In preparing the new anaesthetic, I make a strong alcoholic tincture of hops and
poppies, using to a quart of alcohol six ounces of hops and three ounces of poppies.
To the alcohol I add two quarts of water. Through this aqueous and alcoholic
infusion or tincture I pass the nitrous oxide gas in its course from the producing
retort to the gasometer used to contain it. In this way I can have with the gas
an aqueous alcoholic vapour impregnated with the narcotic and other effective
principles of the hops and poppies.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Jasper Wetter in the Patent Office on the 29th February 1884.
JASPER WETTER, of Wimbledon, Surrey, "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ANAESTHETICS,
.a communication to me from abroad by Urial King Mayo, of Massachusetts, United
States of America,
Nitrous oxide or "laughing gas" as otherwise termed-has for several years past
been employed to produce anaesthesia, for surgical operations, more especially in
the extraction of teeth, but it frequently does not operate with the desired effect,
or is unreliable and dangerous, as it occasionally produces on the patient a deathly
pallor, checks the insensible perspiration and retards circulation of the blood.
This invention has for its object to combine with the nitrous oxide a sedative or
sedatives or something whereby its dangerous or disagreeable effects, as mentioned,
will be prevented, and enable it to be employed in most if not all surgical
operations with comparative if not entire safety and success.
By impregnating the gas with the vapor of an alcoholic infusion of hops and
poppies it can be rendered practically innocuous and specially advantageous when
used by inhalation to produce insensibility to pain, as when so employed it not only
operates quicker but induces a natural and gentle perspiration and preserves the
pulse at or about at its normal condition.
In preparing the new anaesthetic, I make a strong alcoholic tincture of hops and
poppies, using to a quart of alcohol six ounces of hops and three ounces of poppies.
To the alcohol I add two quarts of water. Through this aqueous and alcobolic
infusion or tincture I pass the nitrous oxide gas in its course from the producing
retort to the gasometer used to contain it. In this way I can have with the gas
an aqueous alcoholic vapor impregnated with the narcotic and other effective
principles of the hops and poppies.
I do not confine my composition to the precise proportions given for its
constituents, as they may be varied somewhat and still be productive of good
effects.
I would remark that the employment of either hops or poppies alone will not be
productive of the desired useful results that follow from an aqueous alcoholic
infusion of both of them.
I claim as this invention:
An anaesthetic compound consisting of nitrous oxide gas, and the vapors of an
aqueous alcoholic tincture or infusion of hops and poppies, combined substantially
as set forth.
In witness whereof I the said Jasper Wetter have hereunto set my hand
and seal this 29th day of February A.D. 1884.