Ether anaesthesia in children.

Abstract

Ether has been the sole or main anaesthetic agent that I have used in the following 304 cases, and I have given a list of the number of times it was given in each operation. I found myself dissatisfied with the use of chloroform as an anaesthetic agent to children after having given about 300 cases of it, and set about to try if ether could not be made to take its place. I first of all tried ether alone with a Clover's inhaler for children of five to ten years of age, but found that it had to be discontinued on account of the fright produced by the suffocating feeling of the inhaler. I next tried the preliminary anaethetisa­tion with chloroform, followed by ether to continue and maintain the condition for the remainder of the operation ; this method was continued with for nearly 200 cases, but, for reasons detailed below, I thought it better to do without the chloroform altogether, and tried ether only from beginning to end of the operation; and this, more especially that practice in the use of it has shown me the way to give it without interfering with the patient's comfort, I now use always, and consider it the most satisfactory and safest anaesthetic that can be given to young children.