532 
THE USE OF CHLOROFORM. 
experiments appear to have been making about the same time ; and 
to both gentlemen, in their respective departments of scientific in- 
quiry, is, certainly, the greatest credit due. 
It will be remembered that Mr. Mayhew was early in the field 
as an experimenter in the days when ether had so great a name as 
an anaesthetic ; and that the result of some trials to which he put it 
in dogs and cats augured in his mind not very favourably of its 
probable influence on the horse, and its consequent utility in vete- 
rinary practice. Time has pretty well verified this prediction in 
the case of ether; nor, as yet, in the case of chloroform as an 
agent to stifle feeling, has, in a practical point of view, much better 
success followed. For, although the anaesthetic powers of chloro- 
form have been satisfactorily proved to be predominant over even 
the strength of a horse, yet is that strength likely to be so out- 
rageously and uncontrollably manifested during the transition of the 
animal from consciousness to unconsciousness, in consequence of 
certain suffocating if not actually painful sensations experienced 
by him at the time, that there exists the greatest danger of him, in 
his delirious moments, throwing himself headlong upon the ground, 
and doing himself irreparable injury. Mr. Field, from the many 
trials he has had opportunities of putting chloroform to, is probably 
better able, from being better prepared, to control its effects than 
most of us ; and yet Mr. Field, from a conviction of the risk, not 
to say danger, necessarily connected with the experiment, very 
properly refuses, on his own responsibility at least, to subject any 
horse on whom he may have to operate to the influence of chloro- 
form. 
Abandoning the use of this potent chemical agent as an anaes- 
thetic, at least for all practical purposes, let us turn our attention 
to it as “ an internal remedy.” Mr. Mayhew has pointed out to 
us the ground upon which we may safely make a beginning : let 
us, then, at once take our stand upon it, and try how much farther 
we may venture into so inviting a field of investigation ; one that 
promises so fairly, and, we think we are warranted in adding, so 
fruitfully. 
On no occasion, from its first down to its last sitting, has the 
Council of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons met to de- 
liberate on a question of more fundamental import, touching their 
