26 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
which will take place in spite of the greatest care and attention. 
The therapeutics of these will be studied in special chapters. 
Il. 
GENERAL ANESTHESIA. 
The idea of relieving pain is as old as the art of healing. In all 
ages, surgeons have occupied themselves with the idea of diminish- 
ing suffering during an operation. 
For a long time their attempts failed ; and it is scarcely fifty years 
since hope of ever succeeding was almost given up. ‘‘To avoid 
giving pain in operation,” said Velpeau, ‘‘is a dream that cannot be 
realized: sharp instrument and pain are, in operative medicine, 
words that do not present themselves one without the other; their 
union must necessarily be admitted.” A few years later the dream 
was a reality. On the 14th of October, 1846, Warren performed 
before the students of the Medical College in Boston the first opera- 
tion with anesthetics. After putting a patient under the influence 
of ether, administered by Morton, he removed without the least 
evidence of sensibility, a tumor of the neck, which required a long 
and delicate operation. When the patient awoke he declared he 
had felt no pain. Such was the first important application of the 
discovery of Morton. It opened the era of Surgical Anzesthesia. 
(Forgue & Reclus. ) 
A month later, anesthesia was known in Europe.- Boots and Lis- 
ter first employed it in England. On the 12th of January, 1847, 
Malgaigne related to the Academy of Medicine several operations 
which he had performed without the slightest pain to his patients. 
Facts, favorable to the method, soon were coming from all direc- 
_tions. During the year 1847, veterinarians experimented on ani- 
mals. Renault, Bouley, Thiernesse, and Rey published the first 
observations showing the advantages that etherization give in serious 
operations performed on the horse. 
At first ether was used exclusively. Objections were made to it on 
account of its great volatility, inflammability, and its strong odor, 
which incommoded the surgeon or his assistants. To palliate these 
inconveniences a special apparatus of inhalation had to be used. 
On the roth of November, 1847, Simpson made-known the anes- 
thetic properties of chloroform ; resting on the results of fifty opera- 
tions, he declared it superior to ether. From comparative trials 
made with the two products, chloroform won; and it is chloroform 
that has generally been used up to the present time by humane sur- 
geons. Ether, however, always has its supporters and its own uses. 
If chloroform is less volatile, less objectionable in odor, and less 
