HINTS TO THE ANESTHETIST. 35 



operation should be performed. Dilatation of the pupil of the 

 eye, especially in the cat, is always well marked, and is by no 

 means, as stated by some, a sign of danger. To maintain the 

 patient in this stage with safety the anaesthetic must be care- 

 fully administered in small quantities from time to time at 

 discretion, and it is a good plan to release the animal from 

 restraint as much as possible in order to be thoroughly pre- 

 pared to administer antidotes in case of accidents. An animal 

 may be kept in this stage for any reasonable length of time. 

 In the College Clinique the longest period in which we have 

 kept a dog under chloroform has been four hours, but very few 

 of the operations of daily practice require an anaesthesia of more 

 than half-an-hour. 



TJie ancBsthetist must devote Ins whole time and attention 

 to his work, and not be zvatching the operator. He must note 

 particularly the efforts of respiration ; should these become 

 weak, shallow, irregular, or in any way spasmodic, or should 

 they cease suddenly, the mask must be at once removed and 

 antidotal measures adopted. The pulse is not such a good 

 guide to danger, but extra care must be taken if it becomes 

 irregular, jerky, intermittent, or feeble. The temperature of 

 the body must be taken into consideration in very prolonged 

 operations ; the effect of the anaesthetic, combined with the 

 stillness of the body, causing a fall below normal. This should 

 never be allowed to get below 95" Fahr. Another sign which 

 is dangerous is a convulsive twitching of the extremities, 

 especially marked in the paws of the hind legs, and in the 

 cat it invariably means death if the hairs of the coat suddenly 

 turn the wrong way. 



The respiration, however, is the chief and also the easiest 

 thing to watch. Out of an experience of a very large number 

 of dogs and cats destroyed with chloroform gradually admin- 

 istered, in fully 95 per cent, the respiration has perceptibly been 

 the first to fail. Occasionally the heart has appeared to cease 

 first, or the two have appeared to stop together, these being 

 particularly noticed when the vapour was rapidly administered 



