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PENTAL.
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PENTAL—TRI-METHY L-ETHYLENE.
Formu/a.—{CH^)2C.CH,CH^, or QHio-
Derivation.—Pental is a tertiary amylene, obtained by heating
amylene hydrate in presence of acids. It is a colorless liquid of
specific gravity 0.6783 at 32° F., insoluble in water, but soluble
in all proportions with alcohol, chloroform and ether. It is as
inflammable as ether, and should therefore not be exposed to a
flame. It boils at 100.4° F., or the latest preparation at 38° C,
and burns with a luminous flame, and has a penetrating odor like
that of mustard-oil.
Medical Properties and Action.— Pental is a general anaesthetic
and has been recommended by Dr. Hollander, of Halle, for
minor surgical operations on account of no untoward effect being
produced by it upon the tissues of the mouth and respiratory-
passages ; that unpleasant after-effects are exceptional ; that con-
sisting only of carbon and hydrogen, to the exclusion of the
halogens, it therefore produces no evil after-effects. It is also
claimed for pental that the anaesthesia comes on gradually with-
out any previous conspicuous symptoms whatever ; that the
quickened pulse at the beginning soon returns to its norrnal state,
and notwithstanding that the sensibility vanishes, consciousness
in most cases partially remains. Under the profoundest narcosis
from pental, it is asserted, that patients when requested will open
the jaws, even though they were firmly closed before, and
although they look at the operator with wide-open eyes, still they
are unaware of what is being done with them. During the
anaesthesia from pental and after, no disagreeable feeling, such as
nausea, headache, etc., occurred in the experience of Dr.
Hollander; and he claims that he never noticed any contraction
of the muscles of the jaws and fingers, as is the case under
bromide of ethyl, nor any depression of the chest or syncope,
which sometimes result from chloroform and bromide of ethyl.
He also asserts that he has administered pental to children from
four to ten years of age, and to old people from fifty to sixty
with the same results, and the least stage of excitement is very
uncommon, the patient being always animated in a friendly,
cheerful way, so that it could be termed laughing-ether. It is
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