310 
ANAESTHETIC AGENTS. 
chloroform, and he found the blood to smell strongly of the 
agent, and not to coagulate, as it usually does. 
Mialhe says that both ether and chloroform act as anaes- 
thetics, by displacing the oxygen of the blood, and hence the 
value of this last-named substance when inhaled to coun- 
teract asphyxia resulting from these agents. 
Although we are in the habit of considering anaesthetics 
to be of recent or modern introduction, such really appears 
not to be the case. Dr. Arnott says that allusion is made to 
this subject in very ancient medical works, particularly to the 
inhalation of the fumes of the plant called mandrake, so as 
to cause insensibility. And an author of the seventeenth 
century has the following lines : 
“ I’ll imitate the pities of old surgeons 
To this lost limb, who, ere they show their art, 
Cast one asleep, then cut the diseased part.” 
The late Professor Sewell was wont to tell of an old farrier 
he knew, who always, before he operated upon a horse, intro- 
duced up one nostril a piece of sponge containing some fluid, 
but what that fluid was he would not make known to any 
one. 0 ! perditum arcanum. The Turks, likewise, according 
to Mr. F. A. Neale, in his 4 Eight Years in Syria, Palestine, 
and Asia Minor,’ resorted to their employment, of which he 
gives the following account : “ In Acre, there is a plentiful 
supply of Turkish veterinary surgeons ; and about the most 
curious sight I ever witnessed, was a horse under treatment 
by these practitioners. First, they threw it on the ground 
by tying its fore feet, or hoofs, so closely together, that it 
became as helpless as an infant ; then a tight bandage was 
placed over the nose and mouth, only leaving sufficient space 
for the animal to breathe. The Turkish pipe, containing 
tobacco, bang, cuscus, and other narcotics, was inserted in 
one of the nostrils, and a spark being placed on the bowl, 
the horse involuntarily inhaled the stupifying smoke, which 
had the effect, after a very short period, of rendering it un- 
conscious of what was going on. Then the skill of surgery 
was brought into play — and the fetlock of the poor brute 
being laid open, a perfect hive of worms, deposited by a fly, 
common in some parts of the desert between Damascus and 
Bagdad, was duly extracted. The wound was closed up 
with pitch sticking-plaster, and the bands being unloosed, 
buckets of cold water were thrown over the horse, who 
quickly revived. The foot w r as now placed in a sling, and, a 
few days afterwards, so effective had been the operation, the 
horse was fit to pursue its daily avocations.” Thus, it seems, 
“ there is no new thing under the sun.” 
