Artificial anæsthesia and anæsthetics / by Henry M. Lyman.

  • Lyman, Henry M. (Henry Munson), 1835-1904.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Artificial anæsthesia and anæsthetics / by Henry M. Lyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    of the body and of producing ansestliesia within the body, Claude Bernard relates the details of a group of interesting experiments -which serve to ex- hibit the community of the action of anaesthetics upon the living protoplasm of vegetable tissues as well as animal. The presence of a minute fungus in fermenting solutions that contain sugar has long been known. As a concomitant of the process of fermentation, this fungus grows and multi- pHes, and elaborates an efficient amount of ferment by which the chemical exchanges in the fluid are greatly promoted. Now, if ether be added to the saccharine solution, all ferment action ceases. The sugar remains unde- composed ; the fungus no longer proHferates ; ferments are no more elab- orated ; the fluid remains as stable as common water. But this is not the result of deatli. The fungus is not dead, as would be the case had the liquid been sterilized by the action of an elevated temperature. The elements are merely asleep in the presence of an anaesthetic substance; and as soon as the ether has been removed by evaporation, or by filtration from the yeast, all the previous phenomena of active life are resumed. That the phenomena which are most intimately associated with life are more easily modified by anaesthetic agents than the phenomena which are dependent upon simple chemical exchange, is clearly indicated by another observation of Claude I^ernard relative to the conversion of cane-sugar into grape-sugar. This transformation is dependent upon another ferment than that which is peculiar to the yeast-fungus. When the fungus is put to sleep by the action of ether, the j^rocess of alcoholic fermentation ceases because the alcoholic ferment is rendered dormant with the plant that gives it birth. But the passage of cane-sugar into the form of grajje-sugai- is ejffected by the action of a soluble, chemical ferment which is not an organ- ized body like yeast. Upon this ferment ether seems to exercise very httle restraining influence, and the transforming process is continuous during the sleep of the yeast-fungus and the arrest of the alcoholic fermentation. When the anaesthetic has been removed the fermentative change attacks the considerable quantity of grape-sugar now ready for transformation, and the production of alcohol and of carbonic acid gas is resumed exactly as if it had never been interrupted. The action of vegetable protoplasm upon carbonic acid gas, by virtue of which plants are enabled to absorb carbonic acid and to exhale oxygen, when subjected to the rays of Hght, is arrested by the presence of anaes- thetic substances in the fluids of the plant. The experiment may be most conveniently performed with an aquatic plant. If a healthy specimen of one of these be immersed in a wateiy solution of ether or chloroform, and if a bell-glass be inverted over the vessel in which the whole has been placed, it will soon be found that the absorption of carbonic acid gas and the exhalation of oxygen have ceased. The plant does not die ; it remains green and healthy. On removing it from the ethereal solution and placing it in pure water, the natural processes of vegetable respiration ai-e renewed. The germination of seeds may also be arrested by the action of anaes- thetics. Claude Bernard surrounded with the vapor of ether certain seeds which he had placed in conditions otherwise favorable to speedy germina- tion. Under the influence of warmth and moisture, supplied in the ab- sence of light, this process ordinarily presents a visible result by the second day; but during the five or six days of the experiment no signs of change appeared. At the expiration of this period, when pure air was substituted for the vapor of ether, the vital processes were renewed and the seeds at once began to sprout. Another experiment exhibited the efiects of anaesthetics upon a still