THE ANESTHETIC ACTION OF DIVINYL OXIDE IN ANIMALS

¹ From the Pharmacological Laboratory of the Univernity of California Medical School, San Francisco, California

Pure divinyl oxide, although inflammable and explosive like ether, has definite advantages over ether which recommend it as a general inhalation anesthetic agent for clinical evaluation. It is more volatile than ether and more powerful and rapid in its anesthetic action. It is less irritating than ether and its general physiological actions are less severe. It has no significant pathological effect when administered without anoxemia. Recovery is more prompt than from ether and apparently less attended with nausea or other evidence of physiological distress. It may be administered by any technique used for ether. On the basis of the experimental evidence so far accumulated, divinyl oxide deserved clinical study to determine whether or not it has practical clinical advantages over the anesthetics now in common use. Divinyl oxide, on exposure to light and air, may polymerize or partially decompose with the appearance of formaldehyde and formic acid. Such material, of course, would be dangerous for anesthetic purposes.