FOR THE WOUNDED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11730, 21 June 1916, Page 1

FOR THE WOUNDED.

A NEW ANAESTHETIC. NEW YORK, May 4 Giving recognition to the work of Mi* Gordon Edwards, an American chemist, tho Vacation War Relief Fund, of which Miss Anno Morgan is chairman, has placed,an order for 3000 individual tubes of ' nikalgin, a new anaesthetic which Mr Edwards has originated. Miss' Morgan and Miss Maude Wetmore, also of the Vacation Committee, have caused investigations to be made for a year'concerning tho merits of tukalgin, and aro convinced that it is a meritorious preparation which has certain advantages over the an (esthetics now in use on the battlefields of Europe. Well-known surgeons have endorsed 'itWriting.from London, where he is now in consultation with the British Medical Corps' regarding tho new anaesthetic, ■Mr Edwards, wdio has been a member of the American Ambulance Hospital Corps in Paris, says:— "If anybody cares to know about it, I received my degree at Lolaud Stanford University, California, in the department of electrical engineering. I followed engineering . for about two years, and then went into real estate, and then into the bond business. _ 1 took up the subject of .local a nesthetics out of sincere scientific interest, and because I learned that there wore, no anaesthetics available except tho dangerous and poisonous ones, and I had thd idea that ' I could discover something better. This particular 'anaesthetic J produced when I saw, after the first few weeks of this war, that it was to be a struggle of artillery, which would moan wounds of an entirely different nature, for which there would be a tremendous need for a first aid local at'Bßsthetic which could be applied by anybody, without.any experience, for relief of pain. "Tho action o? nikalgin in relieving tho pain in exposed surfaces is as absolute as tlio, action of any drug can possibly, bo, and anaesthesia will be produced just as positively and just as completely, whether, the wound be merely an abrasion on a knuckle or a completely mangled leg. Tho only cases where in anesthesia has ever failed to bo manifested have been hospital dressings where nikalgin has been used on wounds which had already advanced well into t-lie healing stage, so that a film of new skin covered tho nerve endings. , But on all fresh wounds offering a a exposed raw surface nikalgin will completely suspend all sensation /ind all suffering, no matter how extensive the wound may sensation should noo return sooner than three hours."