The elements of therapeutics : a clinical guide to the action of medicines / by C. Binz ; tr. from the 5th German ed., and ed., with additions, in conformity with the British and American pharmacopoeias, by Edward I. Sparks.

  • Karl Binz
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of therapeutics : a clinical guide to the action of medicines / by C. Binz ; tr. from the 5th German ed., and ed., with additions, in conformity with the British and American pharmacopoeias, by Edward I. Sparks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    between 400° and 450°, wlien heated in a glass retort, it is decomposed into nitrous oxide gas (1^2^) ^^^ water. It is introduced into the PharmacopcBias for the preparation of nitrous oxide gas, which is liquefied by pressure in iron bottles, and used for operations requiring ansesthesia of a few minutes' duration, especially by dentists. It is also available for making freezing mixtures {vide su^ra, p. 245).] [ Nitrous Oxide Q^^O). A transparent colourless gas, with a faint sweetish smell, prepared by heating nitrate of ammonia. Under a pressure of 50 atmospheres, at a temperature of 45° Fahr., it is reduced to a colourless liquid of sp. gr. 0*9 08. The chief impurities to avoid in making it are the other oxides of nitrogen (hyponitrous acid, &c.)* It was first employed as an ansesthetic in 1844, by Dr. Horace Wells, of Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A., who had a tooth extracted while under its influence. It was not, how- ever, much used till 1863, when it was again brought into notice by Dr. Colton, since w^iich time it has rapidly gained favour in the United States. It was introduced into England in 1868. Physiolog-'tcal Action.—The exciting properties which led its discoverer. Sir Humphrey Davy, in 1800, to give it the name of '' Laughing gas, are only manifested when nitrous oxide is inspired mixed with air. When inhaled pure, it appears to produce anaesthesia by taking the place of the normal respiratory oxygen, and so preventing the proper oxidation of the nervous centres; for though it contains * Messrs. Coxeter, of Grafton-street East, London, who supply an excellent gas, inform the writer that the tests of its purity which they now employ are the appearance of the gas and its freedom from red fumes as it issues from the retorts, and the smell.