OCR Text |
Show NEW ANAESTHETIC IS REVEALED 7 University Experts Spend Thirteen Thir-teen Years in Experiments. Minimizes Danger of Pneumonia Following Fol-lowing an Operation Which Attends At-tends "Laughing Gas" Does Not Affect Heart Action. Discovery of an anaesthetic pronounced pro-nounced by some experts to be superior su-perior to anything previously known to science, was revealed by assoclutes .of Dr. A. B. Luckhardt, associate professor pro-fessor of physiology at the University of Chicago, who with J. P. Carter conducted con-ducted the experiments leading to the discovery. The new anaesthetic utilizes the properties of ethylene gas, which In Its purest form Is said to possess many advantages over nitrous acid, better known as "laughing gas," now commonly in use. The possibilities of lung abscesses and resultant pneumonia i.lways attending at-tending the administration of "laughing "laugh-ing gas" are minimized by use of the new formula, experts say, thus removing re-moving one of the most serious menaces. . Ethylene gas produces no cardiac complications, It Is said, having absolutely abso-lutely no effect upon the heart action. In this respect It Is claimed that it is vastly superior to both ether and chloroform, administration of which always endangers the heart In addition the patient can be brought out from under its Influence immediately by administration of oxygen. oxy-gen. It renders the subject more completely com-pletely unconscious than "laughing gas." The experiments leading to Its discovery dis-covery were started in 1908, when the effects of ethylene gas on flowers was first noticed, and have been carried on almost continuously since that time. Animals were the first subjects. When satisfactory results were obtained, ob-tained, human beings, including the Investigators themselves, were utilized. uti-lized. Ethylene gas has been administered by its discoverers before a number of eminent physicians and surgeons, all of whom, it is said, have been warm In approving it. Dr. D. B. Fhemlster, well-known member of the staff of the Presbyterian hospital, who has used the new anaesthetic, is enthusiastic In pronouncing it an unqualified success. |