Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/834

Rh 790 A N A ANA As the result of further investigations in this depart ment of scientific research, in which the labours of Dr Snow, Mr Nunneley, and Dr Richardson have been con- Bpicuous, numerous other volatile organic fluids have been found to possess anaesthetic properties. Several of these have been used in surgical practice, but as yet none of them have been found to possess such superiority as would entitle them to supersede chloroform. 1 There are many who prefer ether as being a safer anaes thetic than chloroform, less apt to depress the circulation, and less apt to excite vomiting ; but any advantage it has in these respects appears, in the estimation of surgeons, to be practically counterbalanced by the greater efficiency and facility of application of the latter substance. Ether, however, continues to be largely used in America. When introduced by inhalation into the system, anaes thetic vapours act upon the brain and sensory nerves in such a manner as more or less completely to abolish their natural sensibility. The degree in which they do this can be in large measure regulated by the quantity administered. Thus, taking the familiar instance of chloroform, the effect of the inhalation of a small quantity (say less than half a drachm) is a feeling of exhilaration or semi-intoxica tion, accompanied with diminished sensibility to pain, but without entire loss of consciousness. By continuing the inhalation and increasing the quantity, profound stupor, stertorous breathing, fixing of the eyes, and muscular relaxation mark the occurrence of complete anaesthesia. In many cases it is desirable to produce merely the former of these conditions, viz., that of imperfect anaesthesia; and this is the extent to which chloroform is usually applied in un complicated labour. On the other hand, in surgical opera tions requiring absolute stillness on the part of the patient the inhalation must be carried to the extent of producing total unconsciousness. The state of anaesthesia can be safely kept up for long periods by continuing to apply, with due caution, the anaesthetic vapour. Whenever the inhalation is stopped, consciousness begins to return, and, in most cases, is soon completely restored. The importance to the science of medicine of the intro duction of anaesthesia can scarcely be over-estimated. By the employment of anaesthetics in surgery, not only is the work of the surgeon relieved of a source of embarrass ment, and operations the most difficult and delicate under taken which otherwise would have been impossible, but the death-rate in the worst cases has by universal testi mony been greatly diminished. In no department of medicine has the use of anaesthetics been so extensive, or their value so manifest, as in midwifery. The power of chloroform in mitigating the pain attendant on ordinary labour, and in facilitating operative interference in cases of difficulty, is a matter of every-day experience in the practice of the accoucheur. In short, there is almost no condition of great physical suffering which may not be alleviated by the employment, under proper precautions, of anaesthetics. But if the boon has been great to medical science, it has been greater still to mankind ; for not merely is an incal culable amount of actual pain prevented, but the dread of submitting to surgical operations is beyond measure lessened by the thought that they can be performed while the sufferer ia kept in a state of tranquil sleep. Unfortunately, there is no known method of artificially producing insensibility which is entirely free from risk, and deaths have occasionally occurred under the adminis tration of anaesthetic vapours. Like all medicinal sub stances of a poisonous nature, the utmost care and watch fulness are requisite in their administration. The danger, 1 Nitrous oxide gas has teen reintroduced, and is now extensively employed iu dentistry. cocieris paribus, is in proportion to the dose. It is more than probable that many of the fatal instances of anaes thetic inhalation have been the result of carelessness; and it is certain that by a better acquaintance with the physio logical action of the agents employed, and a closer observa tion of the indications of danger in their use, the deaths may be greatly diminished. The importance of this has been recognised in many large hospitals, where the adminis tration of anaesthetics is entrusted to one individual skilled in their properties and uses. But it is doubtful whether many of the deaths occurring under anaesthesia can justly be ascribed to that cause. Sudden deaths occurring in the course of operations were by no means unheard of before anaesthetics came to be employed in surgery at all. Even, however, admitting that all the reported cases of death from anaesthesia are correct, it must be acknowledged that they are insignificant in amount, considering the enormous extent to which the use of chloroform and other anaesthetic agents prevails in all departments of medical practice. The employment of local anaesthesia in surgery has the obvious advantage of being free from risk to life. Many means of accomplishing this have been suggested, the best known of which is the method of Dr Richardson, of the application of ether spray to the part of the body which it is desired to render insensible. By the rapid evaporation of the ether the tissues become frozen, and insensibility of the part is produced. Since, however, the anaesthesia merely affects the superficial textures, this plan is only available in the minor operations of surgery. (j. o. A.) ANAGNI, a town of Italy, in the province of Roma, situated on a hill 37 miles E.S.E. of Rome. It is ill-built, but contains a cathedral, of the llth century, and several ruins. Anagni is the ancient Anagnia, at one time the capital of the Heruici, and a place of considerable im portance both under the Empire and under the popes. It is still the seat of a bishop. Population, 8220. ANAGRAM, the transposition of the letters of a word or words, is derived from the Greek avdypafj./j.a, which was used in precisely the same sense. But the number of different ways in which even a few letters can be arranged being very great (with eight different letters, for instance, it is 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8 = 40,320), the term ana gram is generally restricted to such rearrangements of the letters as form other words, and these usually words which express a meaning. Cainden (Remains, 7th ed., 1674) defines &quot; Anagrammatismc &quot; as &quot; a dissolution of a name truly written into his letters, as his elements, and a new connection of it by artificial transposition, without addition, substraction, or change of any letter, into different words, making some perfect sence applyable to the person named.&quot; Considering the amount of labour that has been spent (or misspent) in transpositions of this kind, in &quot;torturing one poor word ten thousand ways,&quot; the anagrams that display a felicitous perfection of &quot;applyable scrK-e&quot; are remarkably few. Among the best are the anagrammatic answer to Pilate s question, &quot;Quid est veritas?&quot; namely, &quot;fist vir qui adest;&quot; and the transposition of &quot;Horatio Nelson&quot; into &quot; Honor est a Nilo ;&quot; and of &quot; Florence Night ingale&quot; into &quot;Flit on, cheering angel.&quot; James I. s courtiers discovered in &quot; James Stuart &quot; &quot; A just master,&quot; and con verted &quot; Charles James Stuart &quot; into &quot; Claimes Arthur s seat.&quot; &quot; Eleanor Audeley,&quot; wife of Sir John Davies, is said to have been brought before the High Commission in 1634 for extravagances, stimulated by the discovery that her name could be transposed to &quot; Reveale, Daniel, &quot; and to have been laughed out of court by another anagram sub mitted by the Dean of the Arches, &quot; Dame Eleanor Davies,&quot; &quot; Never soe mad a ladie.&quot; There must be few names that could furnish so many anagrams as that of &quot; Augustus do