760 
Gr. W. BUTLER. 
painful unless a general anaesthetic were used, and very often it 
saves the trouble of casting the animal. Operations upon the 
feet and eyes, trephining the sinuses of the head, removal of 
tumors, if not too large, neurectomy, many cases of firing, etc., 
can be done under the effects of cocaine. If a local anaesthetic 
is impracticable I use chloroform, and I find that animals that 
have undergone serious operations when under the influence 
of an anaesthetic, are free from the great shock and constitu¬ 
tional disturbance which is so often seen when such opera¬ 
tions are performed on animals in a conscious condition. 
In administering chloroform to horses and cattle it is neces¬ 
sary, in compliance with economy as regards both time and 
expense, to administer it in a tolerably concentrated forirq 
and yet, if there is not some provision made in the inhaler 
used to allow the escape of impure expired air the animal 
is apt to suffer from lung affection, or some other complica¬ 
tion afterward, especially if the nature of the operation has 
been such as to demand the application of the inhaler for a 
considerable length of time. 
Two or three years since, in talking with a prominent 
veterinarian in regard to this subject, he stated that he had 
almost discarded the use of general anaesthetics on account 
of pneumonia following anaesthesia. The same veterinarian 
mentioned another prominent practitioner whose experience 
had been similar. 
Upon making inquiry as to the kind of an inhaler they 
used, I was told that it was nearly similar to the one I have 
had made and use, and which you now have an opportunity 
of examining, except that it was not supplied with the holes 
and button on the end. 
As I have used this inhaler several years on perhaps a 
couple of hundred animals and have never had a case of 
pneumonia or other complication follow, I conclude that these 
holes in the end of the inhaler, and the button so arranged 
that the holes can be opened during the expiratory act, 
thereby permitting the escape of the impure air, is a big im¬ 
provement. 
In administering the anaesthetic, if the animal struggle 
ii: 
