The operator said that the patient probably lost four ounces of blood, certainly not six. It must be observed that as the blood during an operation is carried away by the sponges, it is impossible to estimate the amount. It could be ascertained only by an analysis of the water in which the sponges are washed. But even admitting that in the present case the loss of blood did not exceed six ounces, it is probable that this amount, flowing suddenly from a child of five years of age, might cause death. Vomiting does not take place when a patient is deeply under the influence of ether or chloroform, and the fact of no signs of over narcotism having appeared, confirms the view that death was occasioned by the loss of blood.
AMYLENE.
This substance was discovered and described in 1844 by M. Balard, Professor of Chemistry to the Faculty of Sciences of Paris.[[172]] M. Auguste Cahours had given this name five years previously to a product which is isomeric with amylene, and is produced at the same time, but is now termed paramylene.
Amylene is made by distilling amylic alcohol with chloride of zinc. The amylic alcohol is obtained from crude fusel oil, otherwise called oil of grain, or oil of potatoe spirit. The fusel oil must be submitted to a careful distillation, with a thermometer in the retort. It begins to boil at a comparatively low temperature, but that portion only is to be retained which comes over from 266° to 284° Fah. Caustic potash is added, to decompose the œnanthic ether which the distilled liquid contains, and it is then redistilled, and that portion which boils steadily at 270° Fah. is collected as pure amylic alcohol. Amylene can be obtained from amylic alcohol in the same manner that olefiant gas, or ethylene, can be made from common alcohol, namely, by heating it with dishydrating agents, as sulphuric, phosphoric, fluoboric and fluosilic acids, and chloride of zinc; but most conveniently with the last substance, which is the one that M. Balard employed. The product which is obtained when amylic alcohol and chloride of zinc are distilled together, contains at least three distinct hydrocarbons, amylene, paramylene, and metamylene; and the amylene which is the most volatile is separated from the others by successive distillations.
Amylene is a colourless and very mobile liquid, of extremely low specific gravity; being one of the lightest liquids known. The amylene made for me by Mr. Bullock[[173]] had a specific gravity of 0·659 at 56°. It is very volatile, boiling at 102° Fah. according to M. Balard, and at 95° according to Frankland, and the specific gravity of its vapour is 2·45. It is composed of ten atoms carbon and ten atoms hydrogen, and bears the same relation to amylic alcohol that olefiant gas, or ethylene, bears to common alcohol.
It is inflammable, burning with a brilliant white flame; and in pouring it out by candle light, the same care is required as in dealing with sulphuric ether. A slight explosion may be obtained by applying a light to a mixture of a small amount of its vapour with a large quantity of air.
It is soluble in alcohol and ether in all proportions, but is very sparingly soluble in water, being in fact a hundred times less soluble than many substances which are ordinarily spoken of as insoluble. From a number of careful experiments which I made, I found that water dissolves 2·35 per cent. of its volume of the vapour of amylene. It follows therefore, from the specific gravity of amylene and of its vapour stated above, that amylene requires 9319 parts of water for its solution. The water which has dissolved this small quantity of amylene tastes as distinctly of it as amylene itself.
Amylene has more odour than chloroform, but much less than sulphuric ether, and the odour does not remain long in the patient’s breath. The smell of amylene somewhat resembles that of wood spirit. The first specimens which Mr. Bullock made were slightly offensive, but the odour improved and diminished in strength, as he obtained the substance in a state more nearly approaching to purity. Many persons, who thought the odour disagreeable at first, began to like it after they had been exposed to it three or four times. It is almost without taste, and it produces no irritation, or effect of any kind on the sound skin, even when confined, and prevented from evaporating. The vapour is almost entirely without pungency, furnishing in this respect a remarkable contrast to both ether and chloroform. Its presence can be perceived on first beginning to inhale it, but after two or three inspirations, one cannot tell whether the air one is breathing contains any of the vapour or not. It does not cause any cough unless there is great irritability of the air-passages, or the vapour is breathed of great strength in the very first inspirations.
Amylene produces about as much cold during its evaporation as sulphuric ether does. If a sponge or piece of blotting paper wetted with amylene is exposed to the air, a portion of the moisture of the air becomes condensed on its surface, by the cold caused during the evaporation of the amylene; and by the further effect of the cold the condensed moisture is frozen, and the sponge or paper is covered with hoar frost.
The boiling point of pure amylene would probably be that which I have quoted above from Frankland, viz., 35° cent. or 95° Fah.; but the amylene which has been obtained for inhalation contains other hydrocarbons of an analogous composition, and its boiling point is not steady: 95° Fah. was indeed about the average boiling point of the greater part of the amylene furnished to me by Mr. Bullock, for it usually commenced to boil at 86°, and as it evaporated, the boiling point gradually rose to 109°, or higher.