ON THE USE OF ETHER AS AN INTOXICANT. 
649 
especial thanks are due to my friend Dr. William Frazer, who has spared no pains in 
the endeavour to obtain accurate information, and to the success of whose inquiries I am 
much indebted. 
I should say, also, that my data having been collected from different parts of the 
Is orth of Ireland, the result is to be taken as the mean of the information obtained, and 
not as applying to any one locality. 
The practice of ether drinking appears to be almost altogether confined to the coun¬ 
ties of Londonderry, Antrim, and Tyrone j and the towns in which it most prevails are 
Draperstown, Maghera (Derry), Cookstovvn and Omagh (Tyrone). Belfast is the depot 
to which the ether manufacturers of Dublin, Edinburgh, and Glasgow send the supplies 
which thence find their way into the smaller towns. 
So far as 1 can learn, the introduction of the practice dates from about five years 
since, and it is curious in its very origin. While it is only right to say that one of 
my correspondents attributes it to habit acquired by the medicinal use of the drug in 
cases where alcoholic stimulants were contraindicated, and another to the desire of “ get¬ 
ting drunk more cheaply,” I have not found either of these theories to bear examination, 
and my authorities are, with these two exceptions, unanimous in the opinion that ether 
drinking is a consequence of the laudable efforts made by the Boman Catholic clergy in 
inducing their flocks to abstain from whisky. The consumers of ether are said to be 
nearly all Catholics, and to belong chiefly to the class of small farmers, though the 
habit certainly prevails among mill hands and other operatives. 
The usual quantity of ether taken at one time is from two to four drachms, and this 
dose is repeated twice, thrice, or even four and six times daily. It is taken unmixed 
with water—indeed, its very slight solubility in that fluid* would make this a useless 
precaution ; but the usual practice is to take, first, a mouthful of water, then the dose 
of ether, and again a mouthful of water. 
The intoxication produced by ether resembles that of alcohol, but is much more 
rapidly produced, and is more evanescent. The ether seems to be eliminated entirely by 
the lungs, as the urine has no odour of it - r and, on the other hand, the breath of the 
ether drinker always affords ample evidence of his addiction to the habit. I am credibly 
informed that at the fair of Draperstown—which appears to be the paradise of ether 
drinkers—the prevalent smell is not, as at country fairs, of pigs, tobacco-smoke, or of 
uuwashel human beings, but of ether. 
I have not been able to learn that, apart from the moral ill effects common to all ex¬ 
citants and intoxicants, the habitual use of ether brings in its train any peculiar evils, 
and although it would be wrong to draw a conclusion from completely negative evi¬ 
dence, I am disposed to believe that the votaries of ether incur less danger from the 
habit than ordinary dram-drinkers > r and there are two good reasons for this belief. If we 
assume that there is nothing specifically injurious in the action of ether, it will readily 
be admitted that, having a definite chemical composition, and not being very liable to 
adulteration with other fluids, it must be an improvement upon the sophisticated al¬ 
coholic potations, which, with these people, it has replaced. Again, the affinity of ether 
for water is so slight,f that dehydration of the mucous tissue of the alimentary canal, and 
that apeptic action which so well mark the difference between the effect of ardent spirits 
and of alcohol in the form of unbrandied wine, cannot be evils attending its ingestion. 
All the ether consumed in this way is that which is technically termed “methylated,” 
that is. prepared from methylated spirit. It may be, with some reason, supposed that 
the action of ether thus obtained upon the human economy cannot be predicated from 
the known action of ether made from pure alcohol. But although the gaseous oxide of 
methyl is soluble in etbyiic oxide, this body can be present but in small quantity in the 
ether of commerce,]; and, though its exact therapeutic action is unknown, can affect the 
action of the ether but slightly. Indeed, by far the greater proportion of the ether 
which has been used medicinally for many years past has been “ methylated,” and is so 
at present; and though to any one whose senses of smell and taste are fairly practised, 
the difference in taste and odour of pure and methylated ether are apparent, the quan- 
* A pint of water dissolves but two ounces of ether, 
f 1000 volumes of ether dissolve but 10 volumes of w T ater. 
X Methylated spirit contains but 10 per ceut. of wood spirit, which, in its turn, consists in 
part only of methylic alcohol. 
VOL.* XI. 2 u 
