188 
A. JOLY. 
ADMINISTRATION OF DRUGS BY TRACHEAL 
INJECTION. 
By a. Joly% D. V. S., Watkrville;, Mk. 
Read before the Maine Veterinary Medical Association, April 13, 1898. 
The administration of drugs by the respiratory passages has 
been of frequent occurrence. The evaporation of water in 
which odorant plants have been infused, fumigations have been 
daily practised in our profession, and with good results, but in 
1817, as hazard would have it, two students of the Veterinary 
, School of Lyons made the following experiment: The afore¬ 
said students, in order to kill a horse under their care, injected 
with a syringe a quantity of “ aqua pura ” in the trachea. Dur¬ 
ing the experiment, one of the professors, Mr. Gohier, came 
upon them, and, after asking them what they were doing, told 
them that he was under the impression that the horse must be 
suffering badly. They answered that they had already injected 
eight quarts without seeing any ill effect. Then the professor 
gave them permission to continue the injection until the horse 
died, which happened half an hour later. The total amount of 
water injected had been thirty-two quarts. 
Immediately after the horse’s death the autopsy was made, 
with the following results : The lungs were inflated, and were 
very heavy, though no water came from the lobes. From this 
examination Mr. Gohier concluded that the respiratory canals 
were quick absorbents, and consequently that we could there¬ 
fore administer drugs by that passage. Although Mr. Gohier 
recommended this modus operand^ no more experiments were 
made until 1828, when Dr. Lelang treated many cases of gland¬ 
ers by injecting a quart of water, having in solution its 
weight of chloride of sodium. By this treatment he obtained 
quite a number of ameliorations, but not a single cure. 
Forty years later Dr. Perosino, professor at the Veterinary 
School of Turin, injected into the trachea a number of solu¬ 
tions of nitrate of silver against seveiral cases of chronic bron¬ 
chitis with complete success. This method was once more 
