The department of anesthesia has made strides commensurate with those made by any other department of medicine or surgery, and the reasons for administering a certain anesthetic in a definite manner are now based on experimental as well as clinical findings.
During the past twelve years I have dwelt on four points as important to anesthesia, all of which are now generally accepted.
1. Chloroform must be considered as a dangerous anesthetic even in the hands of an expert.
2. Ether is administered best by what I have termed "ether-air-anesthesia by the drop method,"1 that is. administering warm ether, drop by drop, on an open mask. the same as is used in giving chloroform, thereby mixing it with quantities of air, inducing anesthesia gradually. By this method ether can be used more universally than any other known anesthetic.
3. From 1/200 to 1/100 grain scopolamin (hyoscin) hydrobromid,2 combined