RELATIONS AND VALLES OF TEE ANAESTHETICS 
253 
quently happens, in animals as well as man, that the pulse is 
greatly quickened while the respiration remains normal or 
undisturbed. Again, in anaesthesia, as in adynamic fevers, 
extreme rapidity of circulation is a symptom of cardiac de¬ 
bility, and in ether narcosis is the signal of danger and of im- 
pendingpulmonary as well as cardiac arrest: it denotes super¬ 
saturation of the economy, whence paralysis may at any 
instant supervene, when it will first manifest itself definitely 
in the respiratory centers. Obviously it is such cases where 
we should fear almost simultaneous arrest of pulmonary and 
cardiac functions. The pulse, therefore, while it may advan¬ 
tageously and desirably be watched at intervals, in the main 
is of less importance in ether anaesthesia than the respiration, 
the character of which should be continuously and carefully 
scrutinized. 
Another fallacy punctured, and lesson taught is, that cardiac 
excitement under ether does not pertain to a pre-anaesthetic 
stage, but instead must be held as evidence of partial paralysis 
of the sympathetic system. Manifestly the latter is involved, 
even in gradual anaesthesia, by the paralyzing influence of 
ether at an earlier stage of narcosis than that by which the 
medulla oblongata is affected. Says Dr. Anstie : * 
It can hardly be doubted that the increased effects of 
more rapid impregnation of the blood with the narcotic would 
tell more rapidly on the sympathetic nerves than on the me¬ 
dulla oblongata, or on the pneumogastric branches, on account 
of the peculiarly intimate connection of the former with the 
arterial tree. And any one who has experimented upon ani¬ 
mals that have died of apnoea must have been struck with the 
powerful exciting influence which can be brought to bear on 
the heart by rough handling of the thoracic sympathetic gan- 
glias, such as must inflict injury oh them not inferior to that 
which a paralyzing narcotic might cause. Under other cir¬ 
cumstances it seems desirable to study carefully the various 
evidences of sympathetic paralysis which present themselves 
in the course of ether narcosis. 
Essentially, then, ether anaesthesia is not divided into two 
stages, one of exitement, the other of narcosis, as is often 
* Stimulants and narcotics, p. 275. 
