142 
ON THE VAPOUR OF /ETHER. 
affects the old and the enfeebled least. The lungs are the organs 
most liable to be injured. The Schneiderian membrane may, 
especially in the horse, be fatally excited; for if stimulated to suppu- 
ration in the frontal sinuses, the animal will scarcely be benefited 
by the short immunity from pain gained by inhalation. Let vete- 
rinarians therefore be cautious, and keep their eyes open for results. 
On the score of humanity, the discovery of the effects of eethereal 
fumes will be of small benefit to animals. The inhalation causes 
more pain than the operation would without it. Then brutes have 
no anticipatory dread to deal with; they come to the operation 
unconscious, and even after castration will immediately commence 
eating. The fear which precedes, and the mental depression that 
follows, they are happily exempted from. The agony occasioned 
by most operations is very slight ; those generally performed 
upon the horse are all but painless when properly executed. The 
suffering produced by the inhalation would be greater, in my opi- 
nion, than that caused by the surgeon. Animals appear to suffer 
most from the restraint to which they are necessarily subjected ; 
their struggles are more those of resistance than of agony. We 
should be cautious lest we become cruel under a mistaken endea- 
vour to be kind. 
In certain cases I would employ the aether, but by no means in 
every instance, until there are more decided proofs of its innocence, 
and until experience has been obtained as to the action of the 
agent. In the present state of public feeling an accident would 
most probably be viewed as an error. The report of the French 
surgeons is full of instruction. On the other side of the channel 
the inhalation has not been so uniformly successful as it is reported 
to have been in England. Let me add, that there are rumours 
abroad of suppressed failures, and of hidden cases in which dan- 
gerous consequences are said to have ensued. The depression it 
caused me to feel would not have been favourable to the issue of a 
capital operation ; and am I so strange a being, that there is not one 
living likely to be similarly affected ? Animals are certainly de- 
pressed after the aether has been administered, and veterinary sur- 
geons know that collapse is in their patients as much to be dreaded 
as it is in man himself. 
I remain, 
Your obedient servant. 
16, Spring-street, Westbourne-terrace. 
P.S. — I hear Mr. Charles Spooner has announced to his class 
that a draft of a new Charter has been “ by them” prepared — 
has been approved of by the Governors, and will be speedily re- 
commended to her Majesty by the Government. Strange news ! 
