Health Sciences · Hospital for Sick Children
A small (3 cm diameter) cylindrical metal phial, narrowing at the neck, with a disk-like red plastic cap. The phial has a damaged red and off-white label around its perimeter.
Accession Number: 2025.sk.29
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Metal
Markings: Control: 5M7777
Dimensions (cm): Height = 9.5, Max diam = 3.
Cyclopropane is an inhalation anesthetic introduced in the 1930s, joining ether, chloroform, and nitrous oxide as a commonly used agent. Like ether, its primary drawback was its flammability.
The phial appears intact and my be full. Its metal surface is tarnished in places, with notable patches of green oxidation. The label is damaged, but mostly intact and legible.
Associated Instruments:
Squibb & Sons, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Date of Manufacture: Mid 20th century.
Provenance:
G H, Lucas and V E Henderson, 1929 “A New Anaesthetic: Cyclopropane : A Preliminary Report.” Canadian Medical Association Journal 21, no. 2: 173–75.
Kim E. Turner, 2018 “The Distinctly Canadian Origins of Cyclopropane.” Canadian Journal of Anesthesia 65, no. 11: 1258–59.
Cyclopropane was discovered in 1881. It had no known uses until its anesthetic properties were discovered by Professor Velyien E. Henderson and Dr. W. Easson Brown working at the University of Toronto Department of Pharmacology. The pair isolated cyclopropane from propylene manufactured by Squibb in the United States and subsequently investigated the anesthetic gas.
Due to the publicity surrounding a series of deaths due to the administration of anesthesia, experiments with cyclopropane were discontinued at the University of Toronto. Further investigations at the University of Wisconsin led to clinical approval for cyclopropane in 1934. Like Ether, the widespread use of cyclopropane continued until the 1960s, when it was replaced by a newer generation of anesthetic gasses that were far less flammable. (See Turner 2018).