‘ ANASTHESIA OF THE HORSE. 37 
In a few moments the animal sleeps, the immobility is complete, the 
muscular relaxation perfect, the mucous membranes have a slight 
cyanotic tinge, the respiration and circulation, disturbed for a mo- 
ment, return to their normal rhythm. The wakening is slow; the 
subject remains stupefied for some time, and in some instances is 
‘seized with a general trembling. After a lapse of time, varying from 
‘half an hour to two hours, the animal gets up staggering, very weak 
‘in the hind quarters ; comatose manifestations may last for one or 
two hours after. 
When the dose injected has been too large, or the subject is very 
‘susceptible to chloral, the sleep is very deep, the mucous membranes 
become darker and darker, the pupil is dilated, respiration and cir- 
culation become slow, the temperature lowers, and death may 
follow. 
If the operation has not been done antiseptically, if the vein has 
‘been run through and through, or torn during the operation, and if 
‘by any chance some chloral has escaped in the perivenous tissue, it 
is rare good luck if serious accidents do not follow. Almost all the 
veterinarians who have tried this method have seen complications of 
phlebitis produced, and so have given it up. Phlebitis appears gen- 
erally from the second to the fourth day; it is manifested by aswell- 
ang of the jugular groove—a swelling which, sometimes limited and 
sometimes diffused, ends in suppuration ; frequently, there are ne- 
<rotic lesions. In one case we have seen the vein destroyed and 
sloughed away throughout almost the whole extent of the neck. 
“The vaso-dilating action of the chloral has also been objected to, as 
it increases hemorrhage in bloody operations. Though it has been 
but little used, chloral, like other anzesthetics, has its list of fatali- 
ties. Miller has killed several horses by injecting chloral into their 
jugular in doses of 50 grammes. Doubtless one may say that this 
was too large a dose, as long as the weight of the animals was not 
known. In 1889, one of our confréres asked us to assistin firing one 
of his horses. The animal being very nervous, it was agreed to give 
it chloral by means of an intravenous injection. The dose used 
-was not above 10 grammes for each 100 kilogrammes of its weight. 
“During the first part of the operation the horse had some slight re- 
actions. After fifteen or twenty minutes, when the operation was 
almost finished, respiration stopped, and a few moments later, not-~ 
‘withstanding the methodical pressure applied upon the thorax to 
- guard against asphyxia, the animal died. 
If intravenous injections, performed aseptically by experienced 
hands, is declared harmless, it has unfortunately given to. many prac- 
titioners such results. that they had to give it up. ‘‘In the case of 
man,” says Dujardin-Beaumetz, ‘‘the serious accidents which have 
occurred have forced this procedure to be abandoned.”! Peuch de~ 
1. DvuJARDIN-BEAUMETZ.—L’art de formuler, p. 41. 
