A NEW SLEEP-PRODUCING AGENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1580, 19 August 1882, Page 6

A NEW SLEEP-PRODUCING AGENT.

According to the Medical Record Professor C Blintz, in a serios of articles contributed to the licrlimr Klinibche Wochcuschrift announces the discovery of nerve -depressing and sleep-producing properties in ozone. The accepted view regarding this gas has been that it is very easily decomposed, nascent oxygen being set free ; that it is extremely irritating on this account to the tissues, acting much like chlorine, and that it cannot be absorbed by the blood. Binz, however, shows that, in proper quantities, it is not irritating, can be inhaled and absorbed, producing, as he claims, peculiar effects on the nervous system. The gas was generated by the sparks of an electrical battery containing four of Bunsen's elements. The ozonized air was conducted by a tube through chloride of calcium. It was then carried by a tube either to a large air-tight glass bell, in which an animal was placed, or to a mask which was worn by the persons who inhaled it. Animals wero first tried. If a strong and long-continued dose of the o/one was supplied, the usual symptons of aryngeal ond tracheal catarrh with strangulation and death occurred. If supplied in more diluted quantities for less than two hours, sleep or a lethargic condition Wcis produced. Frogp, rabbits, and kittens, reached best. Shaking tho jar would not arouse them. When removed and supplied with fresh air, however, they soon returned to their normal condition. Soveral animals woro killed after having been in this condition, and no changes in the air passages or other tissues noted. Precautions were taken and experiments made to show that there vras no carbonic acid poisoning and no introduction of nitrous oxide gas. The animals could, as a rule, be kept in the bell-jars for two hours before any symptoms of irritation appeared, even of the outer parts of the air passages. The experiments were then tried upon human beings. Dr. Hugo Schulta was tho first to submit himself. Subsequently five other gentlemen inhaled the gas. Three of them were put to sleep by it, the others woro slightly stupefied or otherwise depressed. The time required for .bringing on sleep varied between six and sixteen minutes. After remoyal of the gas tho sleeper would awako within half a minute, generally sooner. It was suggested tnat in one quite susceptible person the condition was a hypnotic one, but inhalation in tho same way of pure air produced no effect. After awaking there was some feeling of fatigue, but this soon passed away. Large and prolonged doses of the gas produced sensations of naußea, dizziness, and strangling. But the diluted ozone was breathed for over half an hour without harm. Binz states that in too email amounts no effect ;in too largeones, irritation is produced. He compares its action in this respect to that of alcohol when given. Prof. Binz claims no practical results from his discovery as it stands at present, but thinks that like overy new scientific truth ifc may have eventually some useful bearing.