OBSERVATIONS ON ETHER AND CHLOROFORM. 493 
upon myself have informed me that the rectum is much more 
sensitive, though, if it would be so during spasm or cerebral con- 
gestion, I am unable to say. What amount of ether given in the 
manner I have mentioned would be dangerous, I do not know. 
Against those experiments which gratify a morbid curiosity, and 
aim only at recording the ease with which life can be destroyed, 
I am on principle opposed : I never practised them, and never 
mean to join those who do so. 1 have read the works of Orfila 
and Magendie, but from their cruelties I have gained no know- 
ledge. I believe we grow wise as we endeavour to cultivate our 
better feelings, and learn more by trying to save than by seeking 
to kill. It was with the desire to alleviate pain that I first was 
induced to resort to ether ; the same wish led me to try chlo- 
roform, and in both cases I have been rewarded. In all painful 
diseases of the abdomen these agents appear to me admirable. 
Lately, it has been announced that naphtha is in the Asiatic cholera 
almost a specific; but, reasoning from the effects I have witnessed, 
I should imagine ether would be far more applicable to the disease, 
and probably chloroform even better still. For my own part, were 
I attacked by that disorder, I should entreat that I might be made 
the subject of the experiment. To allay the agony would be my 
strongest wish, but I should also be instigated to make the request 
by the conviction that the medicine would subdue the affection. 
Every medical man is aware how much is gained when the pain 
is lessened, and of the power of ether or chloroform to induce in- 
sensibility there is no longer any dispute. They have, however, 
been resorted to to overcome the suffering which is consequent 
upon surgical operation, and in the manner of their use, if not 
positively dangerous, are certainly not absolutely safe. The anguish 
attendant upon disease is so great, that the suffering consequent 
upon the most severe and tedious operation bears to it no compa- 
rison. To allay the torture which may endure for years, and 
cease only with life, should be no less an object of the physician, 
than to render his patient unconscious to the knife is a glory to 
the surgeon. Hitherto alcohol and opium, singly or in combina- 
tion, have been for this end generally employed ; but so object- 
ionable has their use been found to be, that often the medical 
attendant fears to administer them. The relief which they procure 
is too frequently dearly purchased by the consequences which they 
induce ; and it is often more prudent to allow the patient to suffer, 
than to obtain for him the temporary ease that they, in most in- 
stances, command. But to the class of medicines I am treating 
of I do not know that similar objections can be advanced : I am 
not convinced that, after they have been largely taken, any evil is 
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