EDITORIAL. 
L‘19 
to perform his experiments of suture and graftings of the tho¬ 
racic aorta. Unger and Bettmann in Germany, Giordano, Delo- 
rini and Donati in Italy, also resorted to it for their experiments 
on the heart, the aorta or the oesophagus. All those numerous 
applications have permitted to perfect the technic of the opera¬ 
tion and to appreciate the value of a method which has constantly 
proved itself harmless and efficacious, gradually to find its way 
in human surgercy, where it was resorted to for the first time 
in 1910 by Drs. Lilienthal and Elsberg, of the Mount Sinai Hos¬ 
pital, in New York.* 
Among the principal indications for the application of 
Meltzer’s method is one of mode of administration of anesthetics. 
It is the one which is most looked for. It was first used in ani¬ 
mals by Meltzer, who pointed out the numerous advantages that 
it offered—quick, deep and regular narcosis, without period of 
primary excitement, and obtained with a relatively small quantity 
of anesthetic. The existence of a continuous current of escape 
prevents the accumulation of anesthetic vapors in the respiratory 
conducts, hence no overdosing and impossibility of serious acci¬ 
dents of narcosis; hence, also, a rapid waking up, which can be 
readily activated by insufflation of pure air. Indeed, Meltzer has 
never killed his animals of experiments, no matter how great was 
the quantity of ether insufflated, and, more than that, he has suc¬ 
ceeded in bringing back to life, with insufflation of pure air and 
oxygen, animals etherized by ordinary methods and in a state of 
apparent death since fifteen and twenty minutes. 
The method presents other important advantages, but the one 
spoken of above is the one which would prove of greater use in 
veterinary surgery. 
* 
* * 
Alchoholic Compresses. —Taken from a German publica¬ 
tion, the Annales de Medecine Vetcrinaire, of Brussels, have re¬ 
corded the conclusions of the observations made by Gehne on the 
* See Annals of Surgery, July, 1910, and December, 1911. 
