170 I ASSEMBLY 



will bear a very high dose -without the least danger to life, while 

 the cat is readily killed by a full dose of chloroform. I have 

 not seen deatli produced by the use of pure ether vapor mixed 

 wit]i air in any case or in any animal, and yet I can conceive 

 how an animal having no free perspiration should retain for a 

 longer time the absorbed vapor of that liquid as well as of 

 chloroform. 



Dogs have a perspiration mainly from the tongue, and hence 

 they do not get rid of the absorbed vapor so readily as those 

 animals having a free cutaneous perspiration, and are therefore 

 more likely to suffer ill effects from retained chloroform. All 

 animals excrete the absorbed vapor by the skin, lungs, and kid- 

 neys, in their perspiration, breath and urine, and thus after the 

 effect of the anesthetic agent, is over, the system clears itself 

 very soon of all traces of it by the above named channels ; this 

 I have proved by numerous analyses and it is obvious to the 

 senses that the urine of a person who has inhaled ether vapor is 

 charged with portions of it for several hours afterwards, and we can 

 smell the ether in the breath and also in the cutaneous perspira- 

 tion 



In administering ether and chloroform to animals, I make use 

 •f a wire muzzle, or basket, which is fJastened around the nose 

 and mouth of the animal and fixed im its place by proper straps. 

 On the horse or ox a lieadstall is all that is required to fix the 

 wire basket in its proper position. Into this basket I first put a 

 very coarse open textured sponge, which has been soaked in 

 water so as to soften and swell it, and then it is i-(iueezed dry. 

 The basket and sponge being put in the proper position, I take 

 this mixture — pure sulphuric ether one pint, pure chloroform one 

 gill — and mix them in a bottle ; then I pour upon the sponge, 

 from time to time as needed, this fluid, an ounce at a time, re- 

 newing it as it evaporates. The animal breathes it freely into the 

 lungs and soon gently falls down in a deep sleep of insensibility 

 and unconsciousness and is entirely passive, so that any opera- 

 tic»n may be performed and without any struggle of the animal 

 or any sign of pain. A very refractory horse may by this means 



