PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 225 



largely in the treatment of small animals seems to recog- 

 nize that the delicate surgical operations to which these 

 animals must be submitted can only be appropriately car- 

 ried out successfully with the aid of anaesthesia, and that 

 the sentiment against the infliction of pain to the pet ani- 

 mal is considerably greater than with the working animal, 

 whose value alone is respected alike by the owner and the 

 practitioner. 



Anaesthesia in veterinary surgery today is a means of 

 restraint and not an expedient to relieve pain. So long as 

 an operation can be performed by forcible restraint with- 

 out imminent danger to the technique, the operator or the 

 animal, the thought, of anaesthesia does not enter into the 

 proposition. But, on the other hand, when a certain tech- 

 nique requires perfect repose of the surgical field, or when 

 there is danger of personal injury or injury to the animal, 

 it is sometimes administered, minority reports to the con- 

 trary notwithstanding. 



There is, however, some evidence of a change in the 

 proper direction. A more lively interest is being taken in 

 the matter as veterinary surgery is advancing, and at the 

 present there is some indication that the practitioner of 

 the near future will take advantage of the expedient that 

 made the rapid advancement of human surgery possible. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF CHLOROFORM 

 AND ETHER. — For all practical purposes and intent the 

 actions of these two agents are identical. The slight 

 difiference in the anaesthesia they each produce is trivial 

 and immaterial, and is limited strictly to one of degree. 



From the earliest history of inhalation-anaesthesia var- 

 ious theories were propounded as to the remote action of 

 these agents on the organism, and the subject has since 

 been thoroughly studied by niany carefully executed ex- 

 periments. At first it was thought that the insensibility 



