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gested those occasionally presented after an amputation, when the 

 patient awakes in acute suffering, and again spontaneously sleeps 

 while stitches are inserted. 



A few phenomena only remain to be noticed. 



Convulsions have been reported, occurring at the interval of many 

 hours after inebriation. 



A gentleman of Providence informs me that he has suffered for 

 many months from vertigo, headache and disability for labour, which 

 ensued upon a dose of ether vapour. 



Such cases, with others which have been detailed, must be con- 

 sidered as exceptional, due to peculiar and individual susceptibility, 

 and they are also of exceeding rare occurrence. 



It may be convenient to arrange etherization under several dis- 

 tinct heads, adapting its degree to the character of the surgical 

 operation for which ether is to be administered. 



1. In amputations and other brief surgical operations, and in the 

 extraction of teeth. — In this latter case, inhalation may be discon- 

 tinued a few moments after insensibility. In the former, it is better 

 to continue it two or three minutes longer, and till muscular relaxa- 

 tion. For the extraction of teeth, the patient may himself retain 

 the sponge. When the hand wavers, or falls, the mouth is carefully, 

 but if need be, forcibly, opened, without loss of time, and the forceps 

 are at once applied. In this way one or more teeth may be removed 

 while the patient is in an unconscious or half conscious state, but 

 free from pain. 



2. Protracted dissections may be commenced a short time after 

 insensibility; the sponge being continued to the mouth, with an occa- 

 sional interval to insure the patient ample supply of oxygen. When 

 there is snoring respiration, the sponge should be removed during 

 the short time required to re-establish quiet inhalation. The pulse 

 is kept in hand, and any diminution of its frequency or force, espe- 

 cially the former, is an indication for the admission of unadulterated 

 atmospheric air. Forty-five minutes is a somewhat unusual duration 

 of insensibility, and is not to be attempted by those not conversant 

 with the process. It is important to the operator, in these cases, that 

 the patient should be fairly narcotized, and with a little experience 

 with a rigid attention to the above precautions, accident need not be 

 apprehended. 



It may be added that much of the pain of a dissection is not of an 

 acute character likely to arouse the patient; so that after some time 

 has elapsed, a state of semi-consciousness often suffices; the vapour 



