Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume I Part 43

Immense quant.i.ties of the gas are used in dental operations. It has been computed that in 1870 Messrs c.o.xeter and Barth could not have prepared much less than 60,000 gallons in London alone. To fit it for transit it is reduced by compression. Fifteen gallons may thus be diminished in volume until it fills an iron bottle holding a quart. Five or six gallons of the gas are, on an average, required for each patient. In the preparation of nitrous oxide for surgical purposes Dr Evans advises it to be made at least 24 hours before it is used, and further recommends its being thoroughly washed. An apparatus for the preparation of the gas was devised by Mr Porter, a description of which will be found in the 'Transactions of the Odontological Society of Great Britain' for 1868, in which also mention is made of a face-piece for its administration, the invention of Mr Clover. By means of this latter instrument the desiderata that the nitrous oxide should be inhaled without admixture with atmospheric air, and contamination arising from the expired air given off by the patient, are accomplished, for it has been found that when excitement and talking attend the inhalation of the gas, these effects are due to the presence of the carbonic acid thrown off by the lungs.

When inhaled in the ordinary way, nitrous oxide gas induces exhilaration and narcotism, without asphyxia. When, however, the atmospheric air is carefully excluded, it produces, as we have just seen, anaesthesia without exhilaration. The time required to produce anaesthesia varies from 25 to 120 seconds, by from 10 to 60 inhalations. A patient has been subjected for 10 minutes to its action without experiencing any unpleasant symptoms or after effects. Mr Randle says it is perfectly safe in all short operations, and possibly in long ones also, provided there is due admission of air at proper intervals. It seems tolerably certain that nitrous oxide is largely absorbed by the blood-corpuscles, and it is probable that its presence in them may temporarily act to the exclusion of oxygen, and thus prevent for a time that combination of oxygen with haemoglobin upon which the red colour of the corpuscles depends. Chemistry, however, has failed to show that nitrous oxide is decomposed in the blood, or that it exerts any of the chemical properties of oxygen on the const.i.tuent elements of the blood. Whenever the slightest anaesthetic effect is communicated to the nervous system, a simultaneous effect is produced upon the medulla oblongata, the spinal chord, as well as upon the cerebrum and cerebellum.

The whole available force in the body is undoubtedly due to oxidation.

This oxidation is accomplished by means of the blood, and it is therefore evident that a continuous flow of oxygenated blood to the nerve centres is necessary as a source of power and of sensibility, as well as for the reintegration of nerve tissue. Any deficiency of oxygen in the blood is followed by a decreased arterialisation of the whole volume of the blood.

Under these conditions the exhalation of carbonic acid is relatively less rapid than its formation, and life cannot continue if the blood in the arteries becomes thoroughly venous, as well in colour as in character.

That nitrous oxide, when inhaled, changes the colour of the blood-corpuscles is evidenced by the livid appearance of the face and mucous surfaces; the latter, indeed, is a characteristic accompaniment of its administration, and the darkened colour of the blood may be observed as it flows from the severed vessels. This colour of the blood is probably in part due to uneliminated carbonic acid; but that nitrous oxide possesses in a high degree the property of darkening the blood-corpuscles may be easily demonstrated by directing a jet of the gas for a few seconds upon a little arterial blood in a test tube. Yet, from what has previously been advanced on this point, this latter result may more strictly be due to physical than to chemical causes. An interruption of the circulation in any part of the organism is soon followed by local insensibility in the tissues from which the blood supply may have been withdrawn; and it is beyond dispute that, during the anaesthetic state, the circulation of the blood through the capillary system becomes diminished in velocity. A tendency to stasis begins to appear, accompanied at the same time by a considerable reduction in the supply of arterial blood. These are facts that admit of experimental demonstration, as does also another fact, viz.

that during the period of insensibility produced by the inhalation of nitrous oxide the brain itself is in a state of comparative anaemia. In short, it appears most probable that an arrest of the capillary circulation through the brain, to which several writers have attributed a potential influence as the cause of anaesthesia, is simply, so far as it may exist, a result of it.

The anaesthesia produced by the inhalation of nitrous oxide would, therefore, appear to be referable to an altered condition of the blood, whereby the molecular dynamic changes are interfered with, this interruption being probably due either to the retention of carbonic acid, or to the presence of nitrous oxide; or, as the result of both conditions, to the exclusion of oxygen.

For minor operations nitrous oxide possesses many advantages over other anaesthetics. The princ.i.p.al of these is its safety. In America, in 200,000 cases in which it had been administered, there was only one case of death.

Furthermore its use is not contra-indicated in patients having any const.i.tutional derangement, nor for women who are either pregnant or suckling.

Nitrogen, coal-gas, and carbonic acid have also been employed as anaesthetics.

The 'British Medical Journal' for June 13th, 1868, contains an account of some experiments performed by Dr Burdon Sanderson, at Middles.e.x Hospital, with nitrogen. It seems to have been longer in producing insensibility than nitrous oxide, but no lividity of countenance accompanied, nor sickness or headache followed, its administration.

=a.n.a.lEP'TIC.= _Syn._ a.n.a.lEP'TICUS, L.; a.n.a.lEPTIQUE, Fr. Restorative; that recruits the strength lost by sickness.

=a.n.a.lep'tics.= _Syn._ a.n.a.lEP'TICA, L.; a.n.a.lEPTIQUES, Fr. In _pharmacology_, &c., restorative medicines and agents.

=a.n.a.l'YSIS= (-e-sis). [Eng. L., Gr.] _Syn._ a.n.a.lYSE, Fr.; AUSLoSUNG, ZERLEGUNG, Ger. In a gen. sense, the resolution of anything, whether an object of the senses or of the intellect, into its elementary parts. In _chemistry_, the resolution or separation of a compound body into its const.i.tuent parts or elements, for the purpose of either determining their nature, or, when this is known, their relative proportions. It is divided into QUAL'ITATIVE a.n.a.lYSIS and QUAN't.i.tATIVE a.n.a.lYSIS; and these again into PROX'IMATE a.n.a.lYSIS and UL'TIMATE a.n.a.lYSIS. The first consists in finding the components of a compound, merely as respects their nature or names; the second, in finding not merely the component parts, but also the proportions of each of them; the third gives the results in the names of the proximate or immediate principles or compounds which, by their union, form the body under examination; whilst the fourth develops the chemical elements of which it is composed.[56] An a.n.a.lysis may also be made to determine whether a certain body is or is not contained in a compound (as lead in wine); or it may be undertaken to ascertain all the const.i.tuents present; the extent of an investigation being merely limited by the object in view.

[Footnote 56: Thus, suet consists of olein, palmitin, and stearin. These would form the 'terms' of the PROXIMATE a.n.a.lYSIS of this substance. But olein, palmitin, and stearin consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The ULTIMATE a.n.a.lYSIS of suet would, therefore, have reference to the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.]

For success in chemical a.n.a.lysis a thorough acquaintance with the various properties of bodies is required, as well as apt.i.tude in applying this knowledge in discriminating them, and separating them from each other.

Judgment and expertness in manipulation are, indeed, essential qualifications. The method pursued must likewise be such as to attain the object in view with unerring certainty, and in the most expeditious manner. "The mere knowledge of the reagents, and of the reactions of other bodies with them, will not suffice for the attainment of this end. This requires the additional knowledge of a systematic and progressive course of a.n.a.lysis, or, in other words, the knowledge of the order, and succession, in which solvents, together with general and special reagents, ought to be applied, both to effect the speedy and safe detection of every individual component of a compound or mixture, and to prove with certainty the absence of all other substances. If we do not possess this systematic knowledge, or if in the hope of attaining an object more rapidly, we adhere to no method in our investigations and experiments, a.n.a.lysing becomes (at least in the hands of a novice) mere guesswork, and the results obtained are no longer the fruits of scientific calculation, but mere matters of accident, which sometimes may prove lucky hits, and at others total failures." (Fresenius.)

=a.n.a.lYSIS, SPECTRUM.= More than half a century ago Sir John Herschel employed the prism in the a.n.a.lysis of coloured flames, and in 1834 Fox Talbot, by means of the same instrument, distinguished the difference between the spectra given by strontium and lithium, notwithstanding the similarity of the two in colour. But it was reserved for Messrs Kirchkoff and Bunsen, as the inventors of the spectroscope, to devise the only efficient method of a.n.a.lysing flame, and, at the same time, to furnish chemists with a means whereby they may detect with unerring certainty the presence of any known element by observing the spectrum it gives when such element is submitted to a temperature sufficiently high for it to emit a luminous vapour. That certain chemical substances when heated in the flame of the spirit-lamp or the blow-pipe, or any other source of comparatively white light, imparted characteristic colours to the flame, was a fact that had long been known to chemists; for example, when a salt of sodium was so treated, an intense yellow colour was imparted to the flame. A salt of pota.s.sium produced under the same circ.u.mstances a violet, strontium, a crimson colour, &c. These results could only be produced when the substance under examination contained but one of the salts in question. If more than one were present, this method of qualitative a.n.a.lysis was comparatively, if not wholly, valueless, because the specific colour communicated to the flame by the presence of one element would be masked, and, consequently, destroyed by the colour developed by the vapour of another or other elements. For instance, so much more vivid is the yellow colour given to flame by sodium salts than the violet tint imparted by those of pota.s.sium, that a very small trace of sodium prevents the unaided eye from perceiving the violet, even when the pota.s.sium compound is present in large quant.i.ty.

Very different optical effects, however, follow if the rays from the various-coloured flames are made to pa.s.s through a prism. As is well known, if a ray of ordinary white light is made to traverse a prism, when it issues from the prism it has become decomposed or dissected into seven luminous rays of as many different colours, the coloured image thus produced being called a prismatic spectrum, or simply a spectrum.

This phenomenon is owing to the prism refracting or bending out of its course the beam of light sent through it, and to each coloured ray of which the beam is made up being differently refracted.

"If, however, instead of the white flame coloured flames are examined by means of a prism, the light being allowed to fall through a narrow slit upon the prism, it is at once seen that the light thus refracted differs essentially from white light, inasmuch as it consists of only a particular set of rays, each flame giving a spectrum containing a few bright bands.

Thus, the spectrum of the yellow soda flame contains only one fine bright yellow line, whilst the purple potash flame exhibits a spectrum in which there are two bright lines, one lying at the extreme red, and the other at the extreme violet end. These peculiar lines are always produced by the same chemical element, and by no other known substance; and the position of these lines always remains unaltered. When the spectrum of a flame tinted by a mixture of sodium and pota.s.sium salts is examined, the yellow ray of sodium is found to be confined to its own position, whilst the pota.s.sium red and purple lines are as plainly seen as they would have been had no sodium been present."[57]

[Footnote 57: Roscoe.]

Equally characteristic and well-defined spectra, the bands in which have each an invariable and fixed position in the spectrum, are also produced when the coloured flames arising from heating to the requisite point the remaining salts of the alkalies and alkaline earths are examined by the prism. On the opposite page the first spectrum shows some of the fixed dark lines that are always observed when a solar beam is examined by the spectroscope. These lines are compared with the position of some of the more important bright lines furnished by the spectra of the metals of the alkalies and alkaline earths, when their chlorides are heated upon a loop of platinum wire introduced into the flame of a Bunsen gas-burner. The characteristic bright lines given by each metal are denoted by the letters of the Greek alphabet, the earliest letter indicating the most strongly marked lines.

In the pota.s.sium spectrum the most characteristic bright lines are the red line K a, and violet line K . In the case of sodium nearly the whole of the light is concentrated on the intense yellow double line Na a. In the lithium spectrum a crimson band, Li a, is the prominent line; Li is seldom visible, but at the elevated temperature of the voltaic arc an additional blue line becomes very intense. In the spectrum of caesium two lines in the blue, Cs a and Cs , are strongly marked. In rubidium the lines Rb a and Rb in the blue, and Rb ? in the red are almost equally specific. Thallium is recognised by the intense green line Il a. The spectra of the metals of the alkaline earths are equally definite, though more complicated.

By means of the spectroscope quant.i.ties so inconceivably minute as the 33,000th of a grain of chloride of rubidium, the 170,000th of a grain of chloride of caesium, the 2,500,000th of a grain of sodium, and the 6,000,000th of a grain of lithium, have been detected, and have revealed themselves to the sight by their characteristic bands in the spectrum.

Hence it is that in making use of this branch of a.n.a.lysis the chemist has been enabled to show the universality of many elements. .h.i.therto regarded as being very sparingly distributed throughout the globe.

Thus lithium, which until lately was supposed to be one of the rare elements, has been found as a const.i.tuent of tea, tobacco, milk, blood, and in almost all spring waters. Furthermore, the prodigiously sensitive reactions afforded by the spectroscope have not only revealed the presence of infinitesimal quant.i.ties of known elements, but have led to the discovery of new ones which had escaped detection by the older and less delicate processes of a.n.a.lysis. It was by means of spectrum a.n.a.lysis that the two alkali metals, caesium and rubidium, were discovered by Bunsen and Kirchkoff in 1860 in a mineral water at Durkheim, and that Mr Crookes in 1861 discovered the metal thallium in the deposit found in the flue of a pyrites furnace; whilst still more recently Messrs Reich and Richter, in a spectrum examination of a zinc ore from Freiberg, discovered the metal indium.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The most brilliant spectra are given by those salts which are the most easily volatilised, such as the chlorides, iodides, and bromides of the different metals. But it is only the metals of the alkalies and alkaline earths that give spectra that are characteristic. When it is desired to obtain the spectra of the other metals, they may be raised to the requisite temperature by means of the electric spark, which in pa.s.sing through the two points of the metal operated upon volatilises a minute quant.i.ty of it, and thus enables it to emit its particular light. The electric sparks are best obtained by means of Ruhmkorff's coil. Thus each metal may be made to yield a spectrum which specially belongs to it, and to it alone. When the electric discharge is sent through a compound gas or vapour, owing to the intense temperature generated separation of its const.i.tuents must take place, since the spectra produced are those of the elementary components of the gas. The permanent gases give each their peculiar spectrum when they are strongly heated, by which they may be recognised; thus the spectrum of hydrogen is composed of three bands, one being bright red, one green, and the other blue. Nitrogen gives a very complicated spectrum.

The accompanying figure exhibits a very complete form of the spectroscope adapted to a single prism.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

P represents a flint-gla.s.s prism supported on the cast-iron tripod F, and retained in its place by the spring _c_. At the end of the tube A nearest the prism is a lens, placed at the distance of its focus for parallel rays from a vertical slit at the other end of the tube. The width of the slit can be regulated by means of the screw _e_. One half of this slit is covered by a small rectangular prism designed to reflect the rays proceeding from the source of light D, down the axis of the tube, whilst the rays from the source of light E pa.s.s directly down the tube. By this arrangement the observer stationed at the end of the telescope B is able to compare the spectra of both lights, which are seen one above the other, and he can at once decide whether their lines coincide or differ. _a_ and _b_ are screws for adjusting the axis of the telescope so as to bring any part of the slit at _e_ into the centre of the field of vision.

The telescope as well as the tube C is moveable in a horizontal plane around the axis of the tripod. The tube C contains a lens at the end next to the prism, and at the other end is a scale formed by transparent lines on an opaque ground; it is provided with a levelling screw, _d_. When the telescope has been properly adjusted to the examination of the spectrum, the tube C is moved until it is placed at such an angle with the telescope and the face of the prism, that when a light is transmitted through the scale the image of this scale is reflected into the telescope from the face of the prism nearest the observer. This image is rendered perfectly distinct by pus.h.i.+ng in the tube which holds the scale nearer to the lens in C, or withdrawing it to a greater distance, as may be required. The reflected lines of the scale can then be employed for reading off the position of the dark or bright lines of the spectrum, as both will appear simultaneously overlapping each other in the field of the telescope.

By turning the tube C round upon the axis of the tripod any particular line of the scale can be brought to coincidence with any desired line of the spectrum. Stray light is excluded by covering the stand, the prism, and the ends of the tube adjoining it with a loose black cloth. The dispersive power upon the spectrum may be much increased by using several prisms instead of one. Kirchkoff used four prisms in his experiments upon the solar spectrum. Great care must be observed in placing the prisms; the refracting edge of each prism must be exactly vertical, and the position of minimum deviation for the rays to be observed must be obtained.

The preceding remarks have reference to the spectra produced when the vapours of certain elements are evolved in flame derived from artificial sources. When, however, solar light is examined by the spectroscope, results entirely the reverse follow.

If a beam of sunlight be sent through the slit of the spectroscope, the prismatic image is seen to be intersected by a number of fine black lines, varying in thickness and intensity, and invariably occupying the same relative position in the solar spectrum. These lines were first noticed so far back as 1815 by a German optician, Frauenhofer, after whom they were named Frauenhofer's lines; but it was not until the invention of the spectroscope that the origin of these lines could be accounted for. By so arranging the instrument as to cause the spectrum from a solar beam, and that from a metallic element, to fall upon the field of the telescope, so that the solar spectrum shall be above the other, both being perfectly parallel; the bright bands or lines of the metal are all seen to be continued in the dark solar lines, for, as may be seen by consulting the plate of the different spectra, several lines are sometimes produced by one element alone. If, for instance, the sodium and solar spectra are thus compared, the bright yellow sodium line will be found to agree exactly not only in position, but also in intensity and breadth, with one of the dark solar ones. And the same thing occurs when the comparison is made with many of the other metals, the bright lines in the respective spectra furnished by them are each coincident with a particular dark line in the solar spectrum, and from every dark line in the latter a corresponding bright one can be found amongst the spectra of the metals. From what has just been stated, the inference seems irresistible that this coincidence between the dark solar lines and the bright lines of the metals cannot be accidental, but must be due to some intimate connection between them, and that this is the case can be proved beyond refutation by a simple experiment, in which the bright metallic lines can be changed into dark ones, corresponding in every particular with those of the solar spectrum.

Thus the bright yellow soda lines coincident with Frauenhofer's lines can be converted into dark ones by allowing the rays from a strong source of white light to pa.s.s through a flame coloured with sodium, and then making them fall upon the slit of the spectroscope. If we examine the spectrum obtained by this means, instead of seeing the usual bright double band upon a black ground, there will be presented to our sight a double dark line, corresponding exactly with the position and width of the sodium line, and instead of the black ground there will be a continuous spectrum of white light, as in the solar spectrum.

The explanation of this remarkable phenomenon is due to Kirchkoff, and is as follows:--When any substance is heated sufficiently to render it luminous, rays of a certain and definite degree of refrangibility are given out by it; whilst the same substance has also the power of absorbing rays of this identical refrangibility. In the above experiment, therefore, the yellow flame absorbed the same kind of light as it gave out, a corresponding decrease of intensity in its own particular position in the spectrum occurred, and a dark line showed itself in consequence.

In the same manner and under similar conditions the spectra of many other substances have been reversed.

Reasoning on these facts, Kirchkoff has been able to account for the presence in the solar spectrum of Frauenhofer's dark lines. He supposes that in the luminous atmosphere surrounding the sun the vapours of various metals are present, each of which would give its characteristic system of bright lines; but behind this incandescent atmosphere containing metallic vapour is the still more intensely heated solid or liquid nucleus of the sun, which emits a brilliant continuous spectrum, containing rays of all degrees of refrangibility.

When the light of this intensely heated nucleus is transmitted through the incandescent photosphere of the sun, the bright lines which would be produced by the photosphere are reversed, and Frauenhofer's dark lines are only the reversed bright lines which would be visible if the intensely heated nucleus were no longer there.

The correctness of this theory has been rigorously tested by Kirchkoff himself, who submitted the solar spectrum to a most minute and searching examination.

As a result of the knowledge thus obtained, the presence of certain metals in the sun's atmosphere was an inevitable deduction. The metals. .h.i.therto detected in the solar photosphere are--iron, sodium, magnesium, calcium, chromium, nickel, barium, copper, zinc, strontium, cadmium, cobalt, manganese, aluminium, and t.i.tanium. Hydrogen also exists in large quant.i.ty as an incandescent gas, and gives rise to the red protuberances that may be observed during a total eclipse.

During the total eclipse of 1869, M. Janssen, a French astronomer, was enabled to obtain and figure the specimen of these red protuberances, which, taken exclusively from that source of light, gave not dark lines, but bright ones, corresponding in position with those of hydrogen, magnesium, and sodium.

The fixed stars, unlike the moon and planets, which s.h.i.+ne only by reflected light, are not merely illuminated by self luminous bodies, and yield spectra, which show them to contain many elements known to us; their spectra are crossed by dark lines similar to, but not identical with those given by the sun's light. The spectrum yielded by the star Aldebaran shows it to contain hydrogen, sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, tellurium, antimony, bis.m.u.th, and mercury; in the spectrum of Sirius only sodium, magnesium, and hydrogen have been found; whilst in that of Orionis there is an absence of hydrogen. Most of the nebulae and comets give spectra in which there are only bright lines. It is hence inferred that these celestial bodies are composed of ma.s.ses of glowing gas, and, unlike the sun and stars, do not consist of a solid or liquid ma.s.s surrounded by a gaseous atmosphere. In the nebulae hydrogen and nitrogen only have been found; and in comets, princ.i.p.ally carbon.

=ANANAS HEMP= (_Anana.s.sa sativa_, _S. Brumelia ananas_, as well as other species). This hemp comes from the West Indies and Central and South America, where the common ananas is cultivated. It is rather inferior to some varieties for spinning.

=ANASTATIC PRINTING.= See PRINTING and ZINCOGRAPHY.

=ANATHERIN BALSAM.= The following formula is published by the Netherlands Society:--Tincture of myrrh, 160 grms.; tincture of catechu, 80 grms.; tincture of guaiac.u.m, 40 grms.; tincture of rhatany, 40 grms.; tincture of cloves, 30 grms.; spirit of cochlearia, 20 grms.; oil of ca.s.sia, 20 drops; otto of roses, 1 drop; proof spirit, 630 grms.

=ANATHERIN BALSAM= (J. G. Popp, Vienna). A mouth-wash. Red sandal wood, 20 parts; guaiac.u.m wood, 10 parts; myrrh, 25 parts; cloves, 15 parts; cinnamon, 5 parts; oils of cloves and cinnamon, of each, 2/3 part; spirit, 90 per cent., 1450 parts; rose water, 725 parts. Digest and filter.

Dr Hager, who gives the above, says that on the expiration of the patent the following formula was published, but that a preparation made from that process had only a distant resemblance to the actual compound. Myrrh, 1 part; guaiac.u.m wood, 4 parts; saltpetre, 1 part; to be macerated for a night with corn brandy, 120 parts; spirit of cochlearia, 180 parts. Then distil of this 240 parts, in which are to be digested for 14 days garden rue, cochlearia, rose leaves, black mustard, horseradish, pellitory root, cinchona bark, club-moss, sage-vetiver, and alkanet root, of each 1 part.

Strain and filter, and to each 120 parts of the filtrate add 1 part of spirit of nitrous ether. (Hager.)

=ANATOM'ICAL.= _Syn._ ANATOM'ICUS, L.; ANATOMIQUE, Fr.; ANATOMISCH, Ger.

Belonging to anatomy or dissection.

=Anatomical Prepara'tions.= Objects of interest in both surgical and pathological anatomy, and specimens in natural history, preserved by subjecting them to antiseptic processes, to which is also frequently added injection with coloured fluids (which subsequently harden), amalgams, or fusible metal, in order to display more fully the minute vessels, or the microscopic anatomy of the several parts. See FUSIBLE ALLOY, INJECTIONS, PREPARATIONS, PUTREFACTION, SKELETONS, SOLUTIONS, &c.