A DIFFUSIBLE STIMULANT AND ANAESTHETIC 365 



of having a more disagreeable taste. As it has to be given 

 in more concentrated state, it is also more irritant. Larger 

 doses have to be used. Its vapour is dangerously in- 

 flammable. On account of its extreme volatility it cannot 

 be used in hot climates. It is, however, less liable to para- 

 lyse the heart or vaso-motor centre. Ether and chloroform 

 may be used together, or the anaesthesia produced by 

 chloroform may be maintained by ether. But experiments 

 show that respiration and heart action are more quickly 

 arrested when ether is first given, and anaesthesia sub- 

 sequently carried on by chloroform, than when chloroform 

 alone is used. Ether is preferable when heart action is 

 feeble, when anaesthesia has to be kept up for a considerable 

 period, when operations likely to be attended with collapse 

 are undertaken in pregnant animals, and in those dogs 

 which are thought for any reason to be specially liable to 

 cardiac failure during chloroform anaesthesia. 



Ether resembles most of the bodies of the alcohol series. 

 Like alcohol, it has a twofold stimulant and paralysant 

 action ; but it acts more promptly, its effects pass away 

 more quickly, and, in virtue of its volatility, it is markedly 

 anaesthetic. It stimulates more powerfully than ethyl- 

 acetate or spirit of nitrous ether, neither of which is used 

 as an anaesthetic. Its stimulant properties are somewhat 

 similar to those possessed by turpentine and the other 

 volatile oils. 



MEDICINAL USES. Ether, diluted with a little spirit and 

 water, is a prompt and effectual carminative in indigestion 

 in all animals. It checks undue gastric fermentation, 

 expels flatus, and overcomes irregular, violent, gastro- 

 intestinal movements. In colic in horses this antispas- 

 modie action is frequently aided by conjoining the stimulant 

 with such anodynes as opium, Indian hemp, and belladonna. 

 Horses with gastric distension are frequently roused and 

 the action of the bowels is promoted by ether, which, in 

 urgent cases, may be hypodermically injected. It is some- 

 times given for the expulsion of intestinal worms, and 

 especially of ascarides, which, when in the rectum, are 

 readily dislodged by enemata of diluted ether. Such 

 enemata also relieve spasmodic affections of the intestines. 



