ETHER. 
153 
§§ I77-I79-] 
and a few cases of suicide. Ether is used by some people as a stimulant, 
but ether drinkers are uncommon. It causes an intoxication very 
similar to that of alcohol, but of brief duration. In a case of chronic 
ether-taking recorded by Martin, 1 in which a woman took daily doses 
of ether for the purpose of allaying a gastric trouble, the patient suffered 
from shivering or trembling of the hands and feet, muscular weakness, 
cramp in the calves of the legs, pain in the breast and back, inter¬ 
mittent headaches, palpitation, singing in the ears, vomitings, and 
wakefulness ; the ether being discontinued, the patient recovered. In 
one of Orfila’s experiments, half an ounce of ether was administered to a 
dog. The animal died insensible in three hours. The mucous membrane 
of the stomach was found highly inflamed, the inflammation extending 
somewhat into the duodenum ; the rest of the canal was healthy. The 
lungs were gorged with fluid blood. 
§ 177. Fatal Dose. —The fatal dose of ether, when taken as a liquid, 
is not known. 4 grms. (T04 drm.) cause toxic symptoms, but the effect 
soon passes. Buchanan has seen a brandy-drinker consume 25 grms. 
(6-3 drms.) and yet survive. It is probable that most adults would be 
killed by a fluid ounce (28*4 c.c.). 
§ 178. Ether as an Anaesthetic. —Ether is now much used as an 
anaesthetic, and generally in conjunction with chloroform. Anaesthesia 
by ether is said to compare favourably with that produced by chloroform. 
In 92,000 cases of operations performed under ether, the proportion 
dying from the effects of the anaesthetic was only -3 per 10,000 (Morgan), 
while chloroform gives a higher number (see p. 158). The mortality in 
America, again, from a mixture of chloroform and ether in 11,000 cases 
is reckoned at T7 per 10,000 ; but this proportion is rather above some 
of the calculations relative to the mortality from pure chloroform, so that 
the question can hardly be considered settled. The symptoms of ether 
narcosis are very similar to those produced by chloroform. The chief 
point of difference appears to be its action on the heart. Ether, when 
first breathed, stimulates the heart’s action, and the after-depression that 
follows never reaches so high a grade as with chloroform. Ether is said 
to kill by paralysing the respiration, and in cases which end fatally 
the breathing is seen to stop suddenly : convulsions have not been 
noticed. The post-mortem appearances, as in the case of chloroform, 
are not characteristic. 
§ 179. Separation of Ether from Organic Fluids, etc. —Despite the 
low boiling-point of ether, it is by no means easy to separate it from 
organic substances so as to recover the whole of the ether present. The 
best way is to place the matters in a flask connected with an ordinary 
Liebig’s condenser, the tube of the latter at its further end fitting closely 
into the doubly perforated cork of a flask. Into the second perforation 
1 Gomptes Rendus, 1868. 
