30 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
discussed, every one knows that this agent injected into the veins, 
produces immediately a deep anesthesia, without a period of ex- 
citement. On the contrary, morphine salts give rise at times to a 
strong excitation which lasts several hours. But these differences 
observed in the progress of anesthesia, produced by ether, chloro- 
form, or chloral, are more interesting to the physiologist than to 
the practitioner. What interests him is the degree of toxicity of these 
agents, and the dangers that they present to the patient. And of all 
general anesthetics there is no one which is free from danger. Even 
in veterinary surgery, where their use is yet so limited, they all have 
several records of death laid to their account. 
ANESTHESIA OF THE HORSE. 
ANZXSTHESIA WITH ETHER. 
This is the anesthetic mostly used in France for horses. It is 
administered with a sponge, with a ball of oakum, or with a com- 
press.. In giving the ether in progressive doses, if necessary, sus- 
pend the inhalations at given times; stop them or considerably 
reduce the dose as soon as anesthesia is obtained ; especially during 
the time that it lasts, watch the respiration and the reflexes. Such 
are the principal rules to follow. 
‘The patient, with an empty stomach, is cast, having been relieved 
of everything that might interfere with respiration, or press on the 
throat, the lower border of the neck, or the thorax. 
It is preferable to use a compress twenty centimeters square, which 
is thrown over the nostrils. An assistant pours, in small quantities, 
the ether’ on the compress, which is kept more or less close to 
the nose, as the anesthetic is to be allowed to penetrate with greater 
or less force. ‘ . _ 
The mucus of the superior respiratory organs becomes intolerable ; 
for this reason, 'the first vapors of ether give rise to more or less 
excitement, the horse whinnies, struggles sometimes violently, the 
respiration and the circulation become accelerated. These phenomena 
last sometimes from ten to twenty minutes. In'the first stage of anzes- 
thesia a whirling round of the eyes is observed. Upon some horses 
the eyelids close and open after narcosis is completed. After the 
period of excitement is passed, if respiratory or circulatory troubles 
manifest themselves, if the respiration becomes accelerated or now 
and then partly suspended, if the pulsations are ‘small, increased, 
irregular, or intermittent, the inhalations must be suspended at once. 
The disappearance of sensibility, the muscular inertia, the char- 
acter of the pulse and of the respiration, the changes of the pupil, 
the persistency or the arrest of the’ palpebral reflex, permit one to 
recognize the extent of the anesthesic sleep. Complete narcosis is 
