292 
REMARKS ON ^ETHERIZATION. 
appears all very pretty to say that sheep and dogs and cats, and 
other manageable creatures can — by being held down upon the 
ground or upon a table — be eetherized out of the Professor’s “ soap- 
dish but how will this in practice apply to a horse, one that is 
high-fed and high-spirited, and comes snorting and prancing out of 
his master’s stable I If hobbles are to be put on, and the animal is 
to be cast, preparatory to inhalation, then indeed does etherization 
lose, in veterinary practice, half its value ; it being of great con- 
sideration to us to get rid of the necessity of casting altogether : a 
preparative which can in no instance be resorted to without risk, 
and one which in most practitioners’ hands has, at one time or 
another, been actually attended with serious and fatal conse- 
quences. We do not mean to say, even under such disadvan- 
tageous circumstances, it would not still be our duty to persevere 
with the etherization ; at the same time, it behoves us to bear in 
mind that, though the animal was cast and hobbled, inhalation 
might, and would be likely to, excite struggles of more or less 
violence, and that such struggles might still, incidentally, end in 
a “ broken back.” • 
We would not have it inferred from what has been advanced on 
the subject, that we are disbelievers in the efficacy — even in the 
available or beneficial efficacy — of sether vapour on animals. Our 
present impression is, that the experimenters stand in need of some 
more complete and effective inhaling apparatus than has hitherto 
been employed. It most assuredly would be a glorious triumph 
could we any how manage the etherization ; for then we might 
crop and dock, and fire and cut to our employers’ content, and all 
without inflicting, at the moment at least, any pain whatever on 
our patients. Then, indeed, with reason and humanity, might 
people say to us, “ we will not have our horses fired or castrated 
unless they be first etherised.” As the matter stands, however, 
no considerate horse-proprietor would think of making such a re- 
quest — would choose, indeed, to have his horse submitted to an 
experiment the issue of which is any thing but assured free from 
danger. And this we assert, because it is now notorious enough 
that both men and horses have succumbed, under the influence of 
aether, to rise no more, and, as post-mortem examinations of their 
bodies has shewn, in consequence of such influence. 
