PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 241 



ing- a hind leg in each hand and swinging the body like a 

 pendulum for a few moments. 



2. Reflex Syncope. — This accident occurs during the 

 stage of excitement, often before any great amount of the 

 anaesthetic has been inhaled. It is cardiac syncope pure 

 and simple, due to reflex action. It is undoubtedly caused 

 by the combined action of fear, irritation of the anaesthetic 

 on the sensory nerves and the sense of suffocation, predis- 

 posed, probably, by some functional or organic derangie- 

 ment of the heart, or the unusual sensitiveness of the indi- 

 vidual. The writer has observed three such cases; — (i) 

 A trotting bred stallion six ^ears old that had been idle and 

 fattened for several months was cast for the operation of 

 cryptorchidectomy. About two ounces of chloroform was 

 placed on the sponge, which was held to the muzzle in the 

 usual manner, covered over with an oil cloth sheet. In- 

 stantly the struggles began, but befbre a- single deep in- 

 spiration was taken the patient was notified to' be "dead. 

 The respirations were stopped and the pulse imperceptible. 

 Auscultation proved that the heart was arrested. All ef- 

 forts to resuscitate were futile. • Less than one minute 

 elapsed between the time the sponge was pla,ced to the 

 muzzle and the time of death. (2) A coach horse nine ye'ars 

 oldj that was cast with the side-lines for a neurototny of the 

 peroneal nerve, died in about thirty seconds' after the 

 sponge containing two ounces of chloroform was applied 

 to the muzzle. This patient had been cocainized over the 

 plantar nerves with about six grains of cocaine h'ydrochlo- 

 rate twenty hours previously. (3) A grade horse, weighing 

 less than one thousand pounds was cocaiinized over the' car- 

 pus to attenuate the pain of firing. The resistance being 

 too annoying to the operator, the subject was cast witii the 

 side-lines. The struggling in this new- attitude was con- 

 tinued so incessantly by the animal that it was found nee- 



