402 INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF INHALATION OF ETHER. 
the congestive form. These are fallacies which I am prepared to 
dispute. Etherization, as it has been termed, has nothing in 
common with drunkenness, with asphyxia, with apoplexy, save 
the state of insensibility ; but it has something far more alarming 
and dangerous than any or all of these conditions taken severally 
or collectively. 
As a general principle, it is acknowledged that no agent, be it 
what it may, which produces a sudden and violent effect can be 
safely employed. In the particular cases before us, we have 
to contend not only with sudden and overwhelming effects, but, 
what is far more important, with a chemical and vital alteration 
in the constitution of the blood itself, of which the state of insensi- 
bility is but the natural consequence. 
The change which the blood undergoes in respiration is almost 
entirely confined to the blood corpuscles. These, which represent 
in their independent act of metamorphosis the real vitality of the 
blood, and from which its fibrin is formed, indispensabty require 
for their healthy change a due supply of oxygen. If this supply 
be lessened, or altogether cut off, their metamorphosis is imper- 
fectly effected, or entirely suspended, and the amount and 
plasticity of the fibrin are proportionably diminished or altogether 
arrested. 
The blood, robbed by the ether of its oxygen, impoverished by 
the solution by the same agent of myriads of corpuscles, of those 
especially with which it comes into immediate contact, depreciated 
as a consequence in the quantity and deteriorated in the quality 
of its fibrin, intensely blackened by the solution of its corpuscles 
and their contained hsematoglobulin, is chemically deprived to a 
considerable extent of its powers of coagulation, and rendered unfit 
for the purposes of life. A black vitiated blood circulates through 
the system, analogous in many particulars to that in putrid and 
malignant fevers. 
This impaired condition of the blood is not even partially cor- 
rected until respiration of atmospheric air has been permitted for 
some considerable time, and until lymph corpuscles have found 
their way into the circulation to replace those of the blood destroyed 
by the ether. Many persons, especially those who are out of 
health or enfeebled by long previous disease, are hours, days, nay 
weeks, recovering from the state induced by the inhalation ; 
many die from its direct effects, — from the want of oxygenised 
and vitalized blood to stimulate healthfully the brain and nervous 
system. 
With a view to counteract some of the ill consequences of 
etherization, it has been proposed that the patient should inhale 
oxygen gas, “ as an antidote .” This, of necessity, presupposes 
