gg MEANS OF BBSTEAINT. 



of tlie garment, leaving only the posterior portions exposed and 

 accessible to the operator. This may not be a scientiac device, 

 but its effectiveness can hardly be doubted. 



SUEGICAli ANESTHESIA. 



A resort to the various means of restraint, which we have been 

 considering, is sufficient iti a majority of cases to bring under 

 perfect control such animals as require to be subjected to surgi- 

 cal treatment. But there is a class of cases in which they become 

 inadequate to meet the great requirements of inducing in the pa^ 

 tient a condition in which a great diminution, or the entire 

 suspension, of sensibihty and consciousness, with all power of 

 muscular reaction, is established throughout the organism. This 

 result is obtained through the characteristic action of the special 

 therapeutical compounds, known as anesthesia. 



It is not merely as a more effectual means of securing control 

 over refractory patients that their administration is justified. It is 

 also prompted by a proper humanitarian feeling in cases in which 

 severe and prolonged suffering accompany the operation. 



In veterinary surgery, the indication for anesthesia, has not, to 

 the same extent as in human, the avoidance of pain in the. patient 

 for its object, and though the duties of the veterinarian include 

 that of avoiding the infliction of unnecessary pain as much as 

 possible, the administration of anesthetic compounds aims prin- 

 cipally to facilitate the performance of the operation for its own 

 sake, by depriviag the patient of the power of obstructing, and 

 perhaps even frustrating its execution, to his own detriment, by 

 the violence of his struggles, and the persistency of his resist- 

 ance. To prevent these, with their disastrous consequences, is the 

 prime motive in the induction of the anesthetic state. That it per- 

 fectly succeeds in fixing the patient ia the attitude most favor- 

 able for the surgeon in the execution of the various parts of his 

 task, needs no affirmation, nor need we attempt to measure the 

 value of the discovery, which has proved itself to be such a price- 

 less benefaction to the world. 



There are special cases where anesthesia is more particularly 

 necessary than in others, and where absolute immobihty of the 

 patient is essential, and entire muscular relaxation indispensable. 

 Thus it is indicated in the reduction of fractures or dislocations in 



