COTTON PROCESS ETHER
To the Editor:—Please let me know what information you have about the enclosed clipping?
E. W. Carpenter, M.D., Greenville, S. C.
To the Editor:—“Cotton Process Ether,” manufactured by the Du Pont Co., has been given considerable notoriety in the lay press. A letter of inquiry addressed to the firm elicits the information that “Cotton Process Ether is a very highly refined Di-ethyl Ether charged with Ethylene Gas.” ... What is your opinion of the “Cotton Process Ether”? Has the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry investigated this product?
John L. Atlee, M.D., Lancaster, Pa.
To the Editor:—I have been waiting for some reference to the new anesthetic referred to in the enclosed clipping, but if any has been made in the medical press I have failed to notice it. If there is anything of interest in connection with this item, and it is not too much trouble, I will thank you to put me in touch with the situation.
Holman Taylor, M.D., Fort Worth, Tex.
Answer.—About January 20, the “News Service” of the “E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Co., Inc.,” circularized the press of the country with what it was pleased to term a “good ‘filler’ ”; this particular piece of press agent work dealt with “The New Du Pont Ether.” To quote one paragraph from the “News Item”:
The new anesthetic, which is a highly refined di-ethyl ether, modified by the addition of gases, has the following characteristics: (1) the property of inducing and maintaining anesthesia with practical freedom from postoperative nausea, and (2) the property of inducing and maintaining analgesia (conscious insensibility to pain) as distinguished from anesthesia (insensibility to pain plus narcosis).
The Du Pont Ether and the claims made for it are seemingly based on the work of one man, “James H. Cotton, M.A., M.D., Toronto, Canada,” who published an article on “Cotton Process Ether and Ether Analgesia,” in the American Journal of Surgery for April, 1919. However, Cotton did not give the composition of the “new” ether nor, so far as we are aware, has his work been corroborated. In view of the inquiries received, the Secretary of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry asked the Du Pont Chemical Works for the composition of the new ether. From the firm’s reply we quote one paragraph: