OBSERVATIONS ON ETHER AND CHLOROFORM. 485 
I at all events do not know it. That it can be so used as to destroy 
life, of course, is evident; but when properly guarded, I have no 
proof that its employment is attended with even the remotest 
danger. The idea that it is not free from hazard appears to be 
chiefly drawn from certain results obtained from those filthy prac- 
tices which the gentlemen of science are pleased to term u expe- 
riments.” We are told that Orfila determined the effects of ether 
upon dogs, and “ found that half an ounce introduced into the sto- 
mach, and the oesophagus tied, caused attempts to vomit, diminished 
muscular power, producing insensibility and death in three hours.” 
Not having the original work ( Toxicolog. Generate ) by me, I ex- 
tract the above from Pereira’s “ Materia Medica,” 2d edition, 
1842 ; but while doing so, I cannot refrain from adding, that the 
inference to which the sentence leads is wholly and entirely un- 
founded. To the pup of a lady’s spaniel I have given more than 
half an ounce in the time stated, and life has been preserved ; but 
when doing so, I did not tie the oesophagus, or introduce the fluid 
in a state of purity into the stomach. Whatever may be Orfila’s 
statement, I positively deny that death was the necessary con- 
sequence of the medicine ; and as firmly assert, that to any dog, 
in three hours, I could with no evil consequence administer the 
quantity of ether which the French author assumes he has de- 
monstrated to be poisonous. In medicine, the more important 
question is, not whether an agent can be made to kill, but whether 
if, when given with the intent to cure, it is likely to destroy. 
Ether, when dissolved in water, is no longer dangerous ; diluted to 
some extent it is rendered harmless. That which I obtain is readily 
soluble in ten times its volume of water, or, if combined with the 
tincture of opium, in a smaller quantity of the same fluid. To 
small dogs I have repeatedly given two drachms of ether and a 
scruple of the tincture of opium at a single dose with the best 
effects, and into the rectum of these animals I commonly throw a 
drachm of ether in solution every hour or half hour, as the symp- 
toms, in my judgment, are urgent ; and I am not aware that any 
evil has resulted from this practice. To the horse I have admi- 
nistered six ounces of ether, combined with four ounces of the 
tincture of opium, at a single draught, and have, at the expiration 
of an hour, repeated the drink, and never knew the animal to be 
otherwise than relieved. Sometimes I have, immediately after 
giving the drink, administered two ounces of ether in an enema ; 
so that no less a quantity than half a pound of this reputed poison 
was acting upon the system, and nevertheless the horse has for the 
time been eased, and has ultimately recovered. 
Writing however in general time, it is not my purpose to re- 
commend the employment of ether in the doses I have named. I 
VOL. XXI. 3 u 
